The Buck Stops Here

Breaking News!!! Part 1

2009-01-19T23:19:00.003+05:30

I was bored and worse I was watching the news channels. That's when inspiration struck me.. and the result is below. I can assure everyone and anyone concerned, that the characters here have little or no resemblance to any living or dead person or animal. Even if there is one, its purely co-incidental. Actually my dear, I would give a damn, if it did resemble anyone. So here is the estory :p

Breaking News- Part 1
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The bahu rani of the Machhan household Ishwarya Bai Machhan denied that she was pregnant. She explained that the ever bulging tummy was because of the water diet that she was following in recent months. Her statement read thus "There has been a lot of speculation in the media about me being pregnant. Let me confirm to you that I am not pregnant. Camera's have been consistently and repeatedly pointed at my ever growing tummy which has fueled the speculation further. I would like to clarify that I have gone on a water diet in preparation for my role as Tun Tun in an upcoming movie".

The diet is being administered under the careful and watchful eyes of my Gynecologist Dr.Lielita(pronounced Lylita). The happiest day of my life will be the day when I will be pregnant. Every woman looks forward to motherhood and I am no different. Let the speculation rest.Thank you"

Had me thinking. What does a gynecologist has to do with administering a water diet. Besides why administer the diet up there.... or was it down there.. Beats my knowledge. Strange are the ways of these super glam women.

4 weeks passed since Ishwarya Bai issued her statement. It was a Tuesday morning. The news anchor was trying his best to stay awake while he delivered some news. Same case across the channels. I stopped at Thimes Bow. The chief anchor, Ernab Mooswami was stammering as usual. Suddenly he seem to perk up.. He interrupted the panel discussion by saying "We seem to have an important breaking news. Please remember we are the first ones to break this news. We will provide you updates every hour by the hour on this important new development. Please stay with us, while we take a break."

I continued watching...

Ernab returned...

Ernab: "Yes, Sanjana, tell us about this important breaking news"

Sanjana(reporter): "Ernab, in an important development today, we just heard that Ishwarya Bai, the bahu of the Machhan household has been admitted to hospital. While no reasons are being given by the first family , it is widely speculated that she tried committing suicide. The reasons for committing suicide are also not known. However one more unconfirmed theory doing the rounds is that Ishwarya is pregnant and has been taken to the hospital for delivering the baby"

Ernab: "Thanks Sanjana, viewers, thats the days breaking news, Ishwarya Bai has been admitted to the hospital for reasons unknown. It must be remembered that Thimes Bow had first broken the news that Ishwarya was pregnant 3 months back. Infact our team is searching for pictures of Ishwarya with that bump and ofcourse the unmistakable glow on her face...We will show you those pictures in a few seconds from now.."

I switched channels to KNN-BNN

It was rather odd that Jaideep Pardesai should be on air, if he was then the news must have been really important. I listened to him

Jaideep: Ishwarya Bai Machhan has been admitted to the hospital today for unknown conditions. For those who joined us now, that is the latest breaking news.
The reason for the admission are not known but we will keep you you updated as the news unfolds. In the mean while we have a panel of experts to discuss the matter on hand. We have with us, a known friend of the Machhan family, welcome Shri Umar Singh. Then we have a well known Movie Director , Hamesh Butt and well known writer of Modern Indian Novels(read that as soft porn) Gobha De.

Umar Singhji, you have known the Machhan family for so long, what could be the reason for the Ishwarya's admission. It is said nothing happens in the Macchan family without your blessings and knowledge. So what is the scoop Umarji ?

Umar: I agree that nothing happens in Machhan family without my knowledge. I dont know anything about it as I left their home at around 4 am and now the time is 10.30. A lot can happen in the time that has gone by. So let us wait for some news from Imithab Machhan himself.

Jaideep: Thanks Umarji for your answer, diplomatic though. We will now go over to Imithab Macchan's house where our reporter, Mohit is waiting with some news.. Mohit, what do you have for us ?

Mohit: thanks Jaideep, Imithab Machhan is expected to address the media shortly about this issue. The tension is very much palpable in the household and there has been a lot of visitors, film fraternity coming in... though everyone is tightlipped about why Ishwarya Bai is in the hospital. Ok! Imithab is just walking out of Salsa, the Machhan's bunglow to address the media. I shall catch the live telecast for you..

There is a lot of commotion at the venue. In the mean time Jaideep mutters: The entire media is out there waiting with bated breath for a few words from Imithab. Watch it live on KNN-BNN only.

I switched to BDTV. It was Sikram Bandra who was on air.

Sikram: Our team is right outside the Salsa gate as we bring you live pictures of the Imithab's address to the media. Harka Butt is out there bringing you the news as it happens. Harka, what do you have for us.

Harka is panting big time, almost as if she was having a nervous breakdown. In an excited emotional voice she started "Sikram, it is a big crowd out here at the Salsa, the Machhan family;s bungalow. There is a sea of humanity out here with everyone curious to know what has happened to the darling of India, Ishwarya Bai".

At that time Imithab Macchan makes a dignified entrance, steps upto the media. A flurry of questions shot out towards Macchan like bullets fired from a machine gun.

In his baritone voice Machhan started speaking : "I will not be answering any questions but I have come here to tell the media about an important development in our family", lifts his left hand up to quieten the crowd. Silence reigns still. Imithab continues "My son Ibhishake Machhan recently told me that he and Ishwarya Bai have decided to have a child and that they have been making progress on the same. Yesterday evening, he told me that Ishwarya Bai was 9 months pregnant and was due anytime. He also said that he dint want to tell us earlier as he wanted to give us a big surprise. In the mean time Ishwarya started having labour pains and we have rushed her to the hospital. We expect the delivery anytime. Thank you". He starts walking back to the house ignoring the ever increasing number of questions thrown at him.

Mujhe Chand Chahiye : Moon for sale

2008-11-10T21:47:00.003+05:30

Chand Ka Tukda
Mujhe Chand Chahiye

Well for all those romantic moon lovers, here is some good news. You can buy land right up there in the moon. Right between those craters, rocks and mountains. If you are lucky, you might even get a piece of land right next to Neil Armstrong;s footprint or maybe right next to the flag.

The prices are dirt cheap too. An acre of land will cost Rs.1000 only. With that amount , on heavenly earth you cant even dig your own grave, so it is better that you invest the amount in buying an acre of land on the moon.

You can buy the land from www.lunarembassy.com, www.lunarregistry.com and www.moonshop.com. They will be more than glad to sell you that acre of land.

But me thinks that the real estate mafia should all be put up on a rocket to the moon. I am sure they will jack up prices to such an extent that no one would buy even an inch of land and soon they would bring those prices to acceptable levels i,e 1000 rupees per acre.

So go ahead, buy that acre of land and build your dream house there. The only condition, no mooning allowed :D

Social Networking gets exclusive

2008-11-10T00:24:00.003+05:30

Social Networking has been one of the greatest innovations on the internet. A new way of people with common interests, likes and dislikes getting together. SN sites have been open to everyone irrespective of your creed, wealth and havent really cared if you are a dog. But a new wave of SN sites are propping up. Like niches in every other industry, here too niches are propping up. Here is the niche is that you must be well heeled and wealthy. Welcome to the world of exclusive social networking sites. Meant only for the super rich( some sites have a requirement that you should have a net worth of roughly 3 million dollars), trendy , hip and the happening, these sites have carved themselves a place among the elitist.

Here are some of the sites. If you are one of those well heeled(I dint mean models), super rich dude and dudette, then it is time you checked these sites out.

aSmallWorld
aSmallWorld is an exclusive social networking site launched in 2004 by former Lehman Brothers banker Erik Wachtmeister. With 320,000 members globally, the site was termed `MySpace for millionaires' by Wall Street Journal.

Strictly by invitation only, the social networking site members don’t have to pay any entry fee. Newcomers are inducted on the basis of education, profession and most important, their network of personal contacts. If you don't know a member with invite powers, you're out of luck.

Once invited to join the network, a member can browse the market guide, surf the luxury-travel guide and global-event guide, or participate in forum discussions -- one of the site's most active and popular features.

Members can interact with like-minded individuals who share the same circle of friends, interests, and schedules. Members range from entrepreneurial and business opinion makers to leaders in media, entertainment, fashion, art and sports.

Most of the websites content is produced by the members only who offer travel suggestions, feedback, lively forum discussions, and other topics of common interest.

Diamondlounge.com


Diamond Lounge is one of the most exclusive sites with small membership. The site claims to be a luxury online space aimed at those who want a sophisticated and classy alternative to the standard online dating and social networking websites. As for membership, "Our members are eligible, professional individuals who appreciate the benefits of an exclusive and private environment where they can date and socialise with likeminded people." According to owner Arya Marafie, DiamondLounge.com focuses mainly on dating and fun, just like an exclusive online club. However, according to him, being wealthy won't automatically get one in the door. The person also needs to be interesting and bring something to the table. The average age of members is between 35 to 40, significantly older than MySpace or Facebook. The signup process is easy and people can create profiles free of charge. Potential club members can apply online and will be accepted or declined based on what they do and whom they know. Members have to pay a $50 monthly fee. The company claims that it spends a tremendous amount of time making sure that they select the right club members, because these are the people who will invite the next group. Luxuryratings.com One of the youngest social network for the mega rich, LuxuryRatings.com is a free members-only ratings site for consumers who seek and enjoy luxury brand `experiences'. Started by Luxury Institute, the site offers access to member ratings of several different types of service providers, from wealth advisers to art dealers to yacht brokers. The company claims that LuxuryRatings.com is not as chatty and crowed as the popular networking sites. It is mainly a network of member-generated ratings for brands and the people behind them. Members need to have a minimum net worth of $3 million. Squa.re Squa.re is a community-generated TV site dedicated to luxury, style and hi-fashion. The Squa.re website features a range of channels to watch from high living, to nightlife to style and luxury travel. The site features a wide range of channels to watch and enjoy, centered around four verticals: high living, nightlife, style and escape. To get into Squa.re one must receive an invitation from an existing member. Alternatively, if a user feels he has appropriate content to showcase on the website, he can also contact the Square team directly. Members of Squa.re can also upload their own videos and photos and create their own channel for others to view. Every video or photograph uploaded by a member is first approved by the Squa.re staff for quality and class. Quintessentially Quintessentially is a luxury-lifestyle concierge service started by Prince Charles's nephew. This private members club with a 24-hour global concierge service has offices in almost every major city worldwide. Membership to Quintessentially is strictly limited, and you can apply online through their website. If the application is successful, the user will receive full information along with his membership card. The membership card entails a variety of benefits right from travel, music, art, food, drink, hotels, clubs, spas and restaurants. Members can also enjoy exclusive services like getting front row seats at fashion shows, find presents in a hurry, attend VIP after-parties, get dinner reservations, go to film premieres, book theatre tickets, charter yachts and go to charity galas. Most of the Quintessentially services and offers can be accessed online. There are different levels of Quintessentially membership. The general membership provides the full range of Quintessentially services and benefits 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The Elite memberships are available by invitation only.

Longest Legal Battle: 175 years in the making

2008-11-09T09:00:00.002+05:30

The wheels of Indian justice grind slowly, but there are times when they don't move at all — as has happened with the record-breaking case of an erstwhile Bengali royal family's proverty. The matter, which is now in the Calcutta High Court, has been pending for 175 years, making it perhaps the country's longest-running case.

The property belonged to Raja Rajkrishna Deb, a 17th-century landlord of Bengal's Shovabazar royal family. Now, the Raja's descendents — some 200 of them — are demanding it.

The stakes are high — some seven mansions in north Kolkata, nearly 100,000 acres of land in what is now Bangladesh, large tracts of land in at least three districts of West Bengal, and half of erstwhile Sutanati, one of the three villages that make up modern Kolkata.

But all this is still in the hands of a court-appointed receiver. "We are kings in name only. There is no money even to take care of the temples and do puja," a descendent of the raja told TOI. Incidentally, the Shovabazar Durga Puja is an institution in Kolkata.

The problems began when Raja Rajkrishna Deb died in 1823, bequeathing his estate to his seven surviving sons. But the sons started selling off property to fund their luxurious lifestyles.

The matter first came to court in 1833, when an executor of Rajkrishna Deb's will lodged a case to try to stop the sale. After pondering the case for 22 years, the judges appointed a British lawyer to oversee the property and the case dragged on.

Now the heirs want it back but legal experts say it won't be easy for the high court to take a decision on a case file that's been gathering dust for nearly two centuries. National and state boundaries have since changed and a substantial portion of the land once owned by Raja Rajkrishna Deb is now in Bangladesh.

Presidential Election: All in Pictures, the funny side of it

2008-11-05T11:12:00.000+05:30

Obama baracks Mc Cain

2008-11-05T10:53:00.000+05:30

Barack Obama has swept the American Presidential Election, in the process becoming the first black President of America. The sweep was complete 338 to 156. There will be no need for the Supreme Court to intervene in deciding who the new President will be. Mc Cain has conceded defeat and has called up Obama to congratulate him on the splendid victory.

Nevertheless, people have voted for change and Obama has a task that looks insurmountable. Iraq crises, Economy, Afghanistan and ofcourse numerous other issues. 8 years of war mongering has let America with few friends and I hope Obama will soothe those frayed nerves.

Best wishes to the new President

2004 Indian Ocean tsunami biggest in 600 years: Study

2008-10-30T23:12:00.000+05:30

The tsunami that killed 230,000 people in 2004 was the biggest in the Indian Ocean in some 600 years, two new geological studies

suggest. That long gap might explain how enough geological stress built up to power the huge undersea earthquake that launched the killer waves four years ago, researchers said.

The work appears in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. Two research teams report that by digging pits and taking core samples in Thailand and northern Sumatra, they found evidence that the last comparably large tsunami struck between the years 1300 and 1400.

The researchers found deposits of sand that were apparently left by the waves, and estimated their age with carbon dating of associated plant debris.

The December 2004 disaster killed people in 14 countries. Waves more than 100 feet high struck northern Sumatra and deposited sand more than a mile inland, researchers said. In Thailand, the waves also ran more than a mile inland, leaving deposits of sand some 2 inches to 8 inches (5 centimetres to 20 centimetres) thick.

UN votes to lift US embargo on Cuba

2008-10-30T23:10:00.000+05:30

UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly for the 17th year in a row in favour of lifting the 46-year-old US

trade embargo on communist-ruled Cuba, as Havana hoped for improved ties with a new US administration.

Some 185 of the assembly's 192 members approved a resolution, which reiterated a "call upon all states to refrain from promulgating and applying laws and measures (such as those in the US embargo) in conformity with their obligations under the Charter of the United Nations and international law."

The United States, Israel and Palau voted against the resolution, while Micronesia and the Marshall Islands abstained.

As in previous years, the assembly urged "states that have and continue to apply such laws and measures to take the necessary steps to repeal or invalidate them as soon as possible in accordance with their legal regime."

The margin of support for ending the embargo has grown steadily since 1992, when 59 countries voted in favour of the resolution. The figure was 179 in 2004, 182 in 2005 and 184 in 2007.

Ronald Godard, the US State Department's senior advisor for Latin American affairs, defended the embargo and blamed the communist regime in Havana for Cuba's woes.

"The real reason the Cuban economy is in terrible condition and that so many Cubans remain mired in poverty is that Cuba's regime continues to deny its people their basic human and economic rights," he told the General Assembly.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque welcomed the assembly vote but also looked ahead to future US-Cuba relations after next week's White House election between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.

The US economic, trade and financial sanctions were imposed 46 years ago following the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of the Caribbean island nation by US-backed Cuban exiles.

Noting that the US embargo is "older than Barack Obama and my entire generation," Perez Roque said the new US president "will have to decide whether to concede that the embargo is a failed policy which each time creates greater isolation and discredits his country or whether he continues, with obstinacy and cruelty, to try to wear out the Cuban people with hunger and diseases."

Memorable quotes of Dhirubhai Ambani

2008-10-30T22:48:00.000+05:30

From the very beginning, Dhirubhai was held in high esteem as a big dreamer, a visionary. His stupendous success in business and his story from rags to riches made him a cult figure. He gave few public speeches but the words he spoke are still remembered for their value.

Some of his memorable quotes:

• "With the force of 3million investors RIL will reap the title "World's Biggest Company"

•*"Tax is for the poor or the stupid people."

•*"I am deaf to the word "no"."

• "Growth has no limit at Reliance. I keep revising my vision. Only when you dream it you can do it."

• "Think big, think fast, think ahead. Ideas are no one's monopoly"

• "Our dreams have to be bigger. Our ambitions higher. Our commitment deeper. And our efforts greater. This is my dream for Reliance and for India."

• "You do not require an invitation to make profits."

• "If you work with determination and with perfection, success will follow."

• "Pursue your goals even in the face of difficulties, and convert adversities into opportunities."

• "Give the youth a proper environment. Motivate them. Extend them the support they need. Each one of them has infinite source of energy. They will deliver."

• "Between my past, the present and the future, there is one common factor: Relationship and Trust. This is the foundation of our growth"

• "We bet on people."

• "Meeting the deadlines is not good enough, beating the deadlines is my expectation."

• "Don't give up, courage is my conviction."

• "We cannot change our Rulers, but we can change the way they Rule Us."

• "Dhirubhai will go one day. But Reliance's employees and shareholders will keep it afloat. Reliance is now a concept in which the Ambanis have become irrelevant."

Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life: JK Rowling

2008-10-30T22:46:00.000+05:30

.K. Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series, delivers her Commencement Address, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination,” at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.

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President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates.

The first thing I would like to say is 'thank you.' Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honor, but the weeks of fear and nausea I've experienced at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and fool myself into believing I am at the world's best-educated Harry Potter convention.

Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can't remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.

You see? If all you remember in years to come is the 'gay wizard' joke, I've still come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step towards personal improvement.

Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this.

I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called 'real life', I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.

These might seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.

Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become. Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.

I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels. However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that could never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.

They had hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature. A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages. Hardly had my parents' car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor.

I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day. Of all subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.

I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you. What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty. They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.

What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.

At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.

I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.

However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person's idea of success, so high have you already flown academically.

Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.

Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.

Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above rubies.

The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned.

Given a time machine or a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone's total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.

You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so. Though I will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books. This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs. Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working in the research department at Amnesty International's headquarters in London.

There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them. I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends. I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries. I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.

Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to think independently of their government. Visitors to our office included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had been forced to leave behind.

I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland. He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him. He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child. I was given the job of escorting him to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happiness.

And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since. The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her. She had just given him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against his country's regime, his mother had been seized and executed.

Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, here legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.

Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power. I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard and read.

And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.

Amnesty mobilizes thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have. The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners. Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet. My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.

Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people's minds, imagine themselves into other people's places.

Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.

And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.

I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the willfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.

What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.

One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people's lives simply by existing.

But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people's lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities. Even your nationality sets you apart. The great majority of you belong to the world's only remaining superpower. The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders. That is your privilege, and your burden.

If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.

I am nearly finished. I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already which is something that I already had at 21. The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life. They are my children's godparents, the people to whom I've been able to turn in times of trouble, friends who have been kind enough not to sue me when I've used their names for Death Eaters. At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.

So today, I can wish you nothing better than similar friendships. And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom:

As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.

I wish you all very good lives.

Thank you very much.

---

About the speaker:

Joanne "Jo" Rowling OBE^[ (born 31 July 1965), who writes under the pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British writer and author of the Harry Potter fantasy series, the idea for which was conceived whilst on a train trip from Manchester to London in 1990. The Potter books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, and sold nearly 400 million copies. Aside from writing the Potter novels, Rowling is equally famous for her "rags to riches" life story, in which she progressed from living on welfare to multi-millionaire status within five years. The 2008 Sunday Times Rich List estimated Rowling's fortune at £560 million ($1.1 billion), ranking her as the 12th richest woman in Britain. Forbes ranked Rowling as the 48th most powerful celebrity of 2007and Time magazine named her as a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year, noting the social, moral, and political inspiration she has given her fandom. She has become a notable philanthropist, supporting such charities as Comic Relief, One Parent Families and the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain.

How about a billion dollar note ?

2008-10-30T22:43:00.001+05:30

If you think that the current economic crisis is something that has never happened in history before, you may be wrong! After the collapse of the agriculture sector in Zimbabwe in 2000, the inflation in that country skyrocketed to 231 million percent a year! Just think about it - 231 000 000%! Unemployment went up to 80% and a third of country’s population left it.

Let`s now have a look at the photos that you may not be able to see anywhere else in the world.

Here is a boy getting change in 200 000 dollar notes!

One 200 000 dollar note equals less than $0.10 cents.

December 22nd, a new note of 500 000 dollars introduced to the market!

Next - 750 000 dollars.

January - new note of 10 million dollars.

This US $10 dollar note is 10 times worth more than the 10 million dollars Zimbabwe note.

A case worth 65 billion Zimbabwe dollars which equals to $2000 US dollars.

This guy is going to a supermarket. The exchange rate is 25 million Zimbabwe dollars for 1 US dollar.

This mountain of cash is worth $100.

50 Million note is then introduced!

Next is 250 million dollars note!

Sorry, how much is this t-shirt?

- It`s cheap, only about 3 billion dollars!

May - a note of 500 million dollars is introduced!

June - note worth 25 and 50 billion are printed.

And finally - 100 billion dollars note!

What can you buy for it? Well, these 3 eggs for example.

Thats how people went to restaurants!

And the bills:

In August, the government devalued Zimbabwe dollar by removing 10 zeros from notes.

However, inflation kept going up and in September for this amount of cash you could only buy 4 tomatoes.

And for this - some bread.

And then it started again: 20 000 dollars note in September.

50 000 a couple of weeks ago!

They`ve got a pretty good chance of hitting billion dollar notes again by the end of this year!

Steve Jobs' 12 Rules of Success

2008-10-30T22:39:00.000+05:30

Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computers and Pixar Animation Studios and one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our generation, spells out 12 rules for success.

1. Do what you love to do. Find your true passion. Do what you love to do a make a difference! The only way to do great work is to love what you do.

2. Be different. Think different. Better be a pirate than to join the navy.

3. Do your best. Do your best at every job. No sleep! Success generates more success. So be hungry for it. Hire good people with a passion for success.

4. Make SWOT analysis. As soon as you join/start a company, make a list of strengths and weaknesses of yourself and your company on a piece of paper. Don't hesitate in throwing bad apples out of the company.

5. Be entrepreneurial. Look for the next big thing. Find a set of ideas that need to be quickly and decisively acted upon and jump through that window. Sometimes the first step is the hardest one. Just take it! Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

6. Start small, think big. Don't worry about too many things at once. Take a handful of simple things to begin with, and then progress to more complex ones. Think about not just tomorrow, but the future. I want to put a ding in the universe.

7. Strive to become a market leader. Own and control the primary technology in everything you do. If there's a better technology available, use it no matter if anyone else is not using it. Be the first, and make it an industry standard.

8. Focus on the outcome. People judge you by your performance, so focus on the outcome. Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected. Advertise. If they don't know it, they won't buy your product. Pay attention to design. We made the buttons on the screen look so good you'll want to lick them. Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

9. Ask for feedback. Ask for feedback from people with diverse backgrounds. Each one will tell you one useful thing. If you're at the top of the chain, sometimes people won't give you honest feedback because they're afraid. In this case, disguise yourself, or get feedback from other sources. Focus on those who will use your product – listen to your customers first.

10. Innovate. Innovation distinguishes a leader from a follower. Delegate, let other top executives do 50% of your routine work to be able to spend 50% your time on the new stuff. Say no to 1,000 things to make sure you don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much. Concentrate on really important creations and radical innovation. Hire people who want to make the best things in the world. You need a very product-oriented culture, even in a technology company. Lots of companies have tons of great engineers and smart people. But ultimately, there needs to be some gravitational force that pulls it all together.

11. Learn from failures. Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.

12. Learn continually. There's always "one more thing" to learn! Cross-pollinate ideas with others both within and outside your company. Learn from customers, competitors and partners. If you partner with someone whom you don't like, learn to like them – praise them and benefit from them. Learn to criticize your enemies openly, but honestly.

From Rs 50 to a Forbes billionaire!

2008-10-30T22:37:00.000+05:30

Puthan Naduvath Chenthamaraksha Menon, or P N C Menon, chairman of the Rs 1,500-crore Sobha Developers Ltd, is one of the few dollar-billionaires in India. For the last two years, he has been listed in the Forbes list of billionaires (he is listed at number 754 in the last Forbes list of world’s billionaires).

Menon set up his empire in the Sultanate of Oman with just Rs 50 in hand. Through sheer hard work and some wise decisions, he has become one of the most successful businessmen from India. Today, his company has a presence in India, Dubai, and Oman.

Sobha Developers went public in November 2006. Today, more than 4,000 people are directly employed by Menon, in addition to the thousands more involved in the construction of his buildings.

As he diversifies his activities as a businessman, he is also in the process of developing the village he belongs to by adopting the 3,000-odd families which are below the poverty line.

At Vadakkancherry in Kerala, he has built a hermitage for old people and young widows, a school for children and also a hospital for the villagers. He also runs the Sobha Tradesman Academy in Bangalore that trains people from economically-backward villages in trades related to the construction industry.

An insight into his amazing story…

Childhood in Kerala

I am from an agricultural family in Palghat in Kerala. As my father was into small business in Thrissur, I grew up there. I lost my father when I was 10 years old, and my grandparents were not educated enough to take care of his business. My mother also was ill. So, everything disappeared in a short period of time.

You can say I became an adult at the age of 10 or 12, and started taking decisions on my own from that age. It was a very unfortunate childhood; not a happy one at all.

I did not complete my graduation; I dropped out. If you ask me why, I don’t know. Probably I was in a hurry to be on my own. Like many children who come from a business background, working for somebody else was not there in my mind.

I started my own interior decoration business; small scale contract work of the interiors of houses and offices. It was nothing to write home about.

Chance meeting with an Arab

In 1976, I met this gentleman – Brig. Gen Suleiman Al Adawy -- in a hotel lobby in Kochi, quite accidentally. He had come to Kochi to buy a fishing boat. I had gone to the hotel for some other work. We happened to talk to each other, and after that, he said, “Ours is a new country. There are a lot of opportunities. Why don’t you come over to my place? We will do something together?”

Till then, I had not even heard of a place called Sultanate of Oman. (I went back home, took an atlas and located the place!)

In Oman, with Rs 50 in hand

I decided to accept his invitation. I took my passport and within two months, I was ready to fly to the Sultanate of Oman. I had only Rs 50 in my hand as, at that time, you were permitted to take only that much money with you.

But I was excited. There was no fear of uncertainty in my mind. I had always been sure of myself. I knew I would be able to do something there. I don’t know whether it is the right attitude, but I had that confidence in me. I may sound arrogant but I was confident because I had no role model.

Starting a business in Oman

We had many pre-conceived notions about the Arabs, like they are swimming in money, etc. But this man was only an officer in the army. He had no money to put in as capital to start a business. So, both of us went and borrowed 3,000 riyals from a bank as the initial capital and started our business.

We decided to do the interiors of buildings, a continuation of what I was doing in Kerala. It was an international market, but I was only a street-side contractor. Street-side contractor means you had only a briefcase with you; not even a great office. I was like a fisherman, going to the sea to fish, going to the market to sell the catch and make a living. The beginning was very, very small.

Working hard and with confidence

It was tough initially, but I worked hard, really hard.

Five things were against me:
I was not professionally qualified.
I did not have sufficient capital.
I was in a new geographical location. I didn’t have sufficient contacts.
And my communication skills were poor as I had studied in a Malayalam medium school.

So amidst all the negatives, I was chasing my dreams. My feet, though, were firmly on the ground.

And although I had all the negatives stacked against me, my confidence level was very high. The ability to understand too was very high. I never settled for anything less than perfect.

Now I feel I had divine blessings.

Leader in the industry in Oman

I entered Oman in 1976, and in 1984, I was in the top 4. By 1986-87, my company, The Services and Trade Group of Companies, became a leader in the industry. Even now, I am the market leader there.

Remember, I was competing with European companies. Initially they looked at me as if I were a joker. But as I began to succeed, they started looking at me seriously.

Why, or how, I became the market leader was because I never transferred the money I made back to India. I invested all that in the expansion of the business.

I slowly built my enterprise in Oman. It was not easy building an enterprise; it was very, very difficult. It was like building it brick by brick, step by step. I was learning on the job with each passing day. Each step, you perfect it and go on to the next level.

'Competing with myself'

I always compete with myself and in that competition I am a failure. There are two personalities here; the man with the requirement and the man who delivers. The man with the requirement demands a lot which the other man cannot deliver. That is why he is a failure.

I will be sixty this year-end (2008-end). Probably I may die without achieving what one part of me yearns for. There is always a gap in what you have achieved and what you plan to achieve.

From interiors to full structure

In 1986, I decided to be a full time builder. What I did was backward integration: from architecture to structural engineering to designs. We are probably the only backward integrated company of this size and type in the whole world.

From factory-building, we went to construct houses, and then to large commercial buildings. We also did private palaces in the Middle East.

I became a citizen of Oman a decade ago. From Oman, I moved to the United Arab Emirates.

Doing business in India

When I came to India to do business 14 years ago, it was to diversify the geographical spread. I chose Bangalore as our destination in India. I started Sobha Developers in my wife’s name. Because I had done even the palaces in the Middle East, I came with top-end knowledge. That was why we succeeded here too.

We have completed more than ten commercial projects on turnkey bases, covering 1.85 million sq ft. Forty residential projects have been completed and about 32 are in the process of completion.

Under contractual projects, we have built office buildings for Infosys, Timken, Taj, Mico, HP and Dell.

We went public in 2006. Now we are a Rs 1,500-crore company.

In the Forbes list of billionaires

I went to Oman to start a business with Rs 50 in my hand. Today, I am in the Forbes list of billionaires. In 2007, I was listed in the Forbes list. I am there in the 2008 list as well.

If you ask me how I felt, I would say, it was a very satisfying experience. Internationally, the tag has its advantages. If you do not have acceptance in the market place, you will not be able to continue as a businessman.

One has to admit that there are only 1,200 people in the world who are listed. So, it was a nice feeling.

The life of a billionaire

I live a good life and I don’t feel guilty about it. I have beautiful houses, beautiful cars and I have also ordered a private jet now.

However, after a point, money cannot be the motivating factor. Money is only a byproduct of success. Success for me is. . . well, if I am at step 10, then I see success at step 20. So, success is infinity for me; it never ends.

I come from a middle class family and I still have those middle class values.

Dreams of a billionaire

My first ambition is I want to prove that in India, we have a global Indian company in the real estate and construction industry. I want people from anywhere in the world to look at my buildings and say, what a building! What construction!

My target for this global Indian company is 2011. My dream volume: 10million sq ft of buildings, and 10 million sq ft of infrastructure. I am confident we will achieve that dream.

Diversification

I plan to get into the hospitality business. In the next seven years, I should have 4,000 rooms operational within and outside India.

I am also getting into the retail business. I want to set up home stores where you can buy everything for a home, other than grocery and clothes. You need a minimum 50,000 sq ft to set up each such store.

I am already in to information technology. I have a 1,000-people company called Sobha Renaissance Information Technology in Bangalore.

I am also targeting trading and investments.

But my primary verticals will be construction, infrastructure, retail and hospitality.

Social responsibility

By giving something back to the society, I don’t feel I am doing a favor. I am not doing any charity. It is my responsibility. You are part of a society where 400 million people are extremely poor. When you create wealth, a portion of that wealth has to necessarily go to these people who are right at the bottom.

I have been doing this for the last 25 years in my village in Palghat. The size of my wealth was nothing compared to what it is today, yet I was doing that. I have been feeding the poor and the elderly two times a day for the last 25 years, but I don’t like to talk about it.

Recently I decided that my geography of work will be the place where I was born, the Kizhakkancherry Panchayat in Palghat district. We did a study in the two panchayats to find out how many people there were really poor: we found that there were 3,000 families living below the poverty line.

So, my focus is on these 3,000 families -- the education of their children, their health conditions, their housing, water, sanitation, and, finally, their employment.

I have put a time target of 8-10 years for the socio-economic empowerment of these 3,000 families. About 12,000 people will benefit from this. I am like a father to these 3,000 families. They are like my extended family.

Educating and rehabilitating people

At the Sobha Academy that we started last July, we follow the ICSE syllabus and provide free education and maintenance -- that include three meals, uniform and books to all the students. I expect to educate 2,000 students. We take students only from the impoverished families in the locality.

The biggest challenge for me will be creating employment for these 3,000 families where they live. If I set up a business in these two panchayats, it will not be to make money. I will not even drink a cup of tea from that business. The entire money will go to their benefit.

I will not own even one inch of land in these two panchayats. If I create a business vertical there, it will only be to benefit them. It is easy for me to take them out elsewhere but I want to avoid migration. Migration should be avoided if we want to empower rural India.

No amount of money can give me the kind of satisfaction I get when I see these little children in uniform. It fills my heart.

(As told to Shobha Warrier of Rediff)

At 41, Dara Torres is in the swim for a fifth Olympics

2008-10-30T22:34:00.000+05:30

‘The water doesn’t know what age you are!’

By Mike Celizic

Dara Torres is 41, a mother, and is off to an unprecedented fifth Olympics as a swimmer. It is a feat that impresses everybody — fans, the media and her fellow competitors. But it doesn’t impress the swimming pool.

“The water doesn’t know what age you are when you jump in,” the oldest woman ever to make the U.S. Olympic Swim Team told Today’s Matt Lauer Monday. “So why not?”

In her mind, Torres is no different than countless other American women who juggle motherhood with a job.

“You really just have to find a good balance. I consider myself almost like a working mom, even though this is really a lot of fun, what I’m doing,” she told Lauer. “There’s so many moms out there who work 9 to 5 and then have to take care of their children. I feel like I’m one of them. I always put my daughter first, and I think that’s the most important thing.”

Over the previous three days, Torres had set American records in both the 100-meter and 50-meter freestyle races, winning both and qualifying for four events in the upcoming Beijing Games. In the 100 on Friday, she beat Natalie Coughlin, who had been the American record-holder. Coughlin is 16 years younger than Torres.

At the end of the race, Torres had to ask other swimmers what the scoreboard said — at her age, it’s hard to read the numbers without her glasses. “I think I’m still in a little bit of a shock,” she told Lauer of her surprising wins. “Once I get back to training camp, I think it will all sink in.”

Defying the years

With her short, blond hair and a 1,000-watt smile that she flashes easily and often, Torres looks like a woman in her 20s. She first represented the United States in the Olympics in 1984 in Los Angeles. She was 17 then, and the wunderkinder of American swimming today, Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff, hadn’t even been born yet.

Torres returned for Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992, then retired for seven years before coming back for the 2000 Games in Sydney. Then she retired again and had a baby, Tessa, two years ago before discovering that her competitive fires were still burning brightly. So she came back at the age of 41 to a sport in which 30 is positively ancient.

She has accumulated nine medals in her four trips to the Olympics, three shy of Jenny Thompson’s record of 12 for an American female swimmer. By winning the two sprint races, Torres also qualifies to become a member of two sprint relay teams. If she were to win medals in all four races, she could break Thompson’s record.

But, Torres told Lauer, she may not swim in all four events. Her best shot at a medal is in the shortest race, the 50-meter freestyle, an all-out dash from one end of the Olympic pool to the other. The 50 comes at the end of the weeklong swimming meet, with the preliminary races starting the day after the 100-meter freestyle finals.

The morning after

At the U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha, Torres said that after she won the 100, her body felt as if it had been run over by a freight train.

“It was probably the hardest 100 I ever swam,” she said. “The next morning when I woke up and had to get ready for the 50 free, I felt like I could barely get my arms out of the water.”

Lauer asked her if she will try to win four more medals. “Not necessarily,” she replied, saying she would have to talk to her coach, Mark Schubert, and the rest of her training staff before deciding. If she drops the 100, the third-place finisher at the trials, 22-year-old Lacey Nymeyer, would take her place.

It is inevitable that anyone who does what Torres has done at an age when most swimmers have been retired for a decade or more will face questions about how she does it. Knowing that people will ask whether she’s taking performance-enhancing drugs, she has gone to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), which drug-tests Olympic athletes, and asked to be singled out for special testing.

Since March, she’s said, she’s undergone random tests — both blood and urine — at least a dozen times.

“I’ve taken a proactive approach,” she said. “I went to USADA and talked to the CEO there and said, ‘Hey, people are talking about me. They can’t believe I’m doing this. I’m an open book. DNA test me, blood test me, urine test me, do whatever you want. I want to show people I’m clean.’ ”

Knowing how often she’s tested and how clean she’s been, she smiles when people suggest she must be taking something. “I just take it as a compliment,” Torres said.

Lauer observed that when he hit 40, he found he couldn’t do things he used to do and got winded more easily. So how does she do it?

Torres laughed. “Maybe I’m a little more athletically gifted than you are.”

Akrit Jaswal - India's child surgeon

2008-10-30T22:30:00.000+05:30

A young girl in India badly burned as a toddler, her fingers had fused together and curled into a knotted ball. Her shepherd family could not afford surgery, but they had heard of a remarkable young boy being called the child surgeon. Akrit Jaswal was only seven years old when he operated, successfully, on the eight year old girl to release her fingers.

Akrit Jaswal (born April 23, 1993) had a reputation, in the region, for being a medical genius. He has been shown to have an I.Q. of 146, the highest I.Q. of any boy his age in India, a country of over one billion people.

He has focused this phenomenal intelligence on medicine and now, at the age of 12, claims to be on the verge of discovering a cure for cancer.

An early developer, Akrit was walking and talking by the time he was 10 months old. He was reading and writing by two, and reading Shakespeare, in English, by the time he was five, and is now talking about his theories for oral gene therapy in the fight against cancer.

He has been sponsored and mentored by BR Rahi the Chairman of Secondary Education in Dharamshala. He is studying for a science degree at Chandigarh College and, at 12 years of age, is the youngest student ever accepted by an Indian University.

Akrit's father left the family a year ago, depressed and exhausted by six years battling with Indian bureaucracy to get his son's intellect acknowledged and resources made available for his cancer research.

Is it possible that this young boy knows something the medical profession does not? Throughout history, scientific breakthroughs have come not only from the established, the learned, and the scholarly, but also from single flashes of insight and inspiration.

Akrit is not phased by his fame and is used to meeting government ministers and press representatives. For ordinary people meeting Akrit, it is very different. When he is in town, they gather for an audience. They come with prescriptions and medicines, seeking advice. They come with ailments and injuries for a diagnosis. They come to see a doctor, a healer. They come to see a guru, and because this is India, there is always spiritual dimension.

Akrit may be famous but, will he be the one to unlock the secrets to a cure for cancer. He was invited to Imperial College, London to find out. He will spend two weeks based at Imperial College having his intelligence tested and talking super-mechanisms, genes and therapies with scientists at the cutting-edge of cancer research.

Akrit must convince Prof Mustafa Djamgoz, a world-renowned research biologist, and his colleague Anup Patel, a consultant urological surgeon, that his ideas are realistic and worth pursuing.

The inquisitors become his friends, Patel and Prof Djamgoz are keen to foster Akrit's enthusiasm, keen to protect him from disappointment, and willing to guide him on his way.

Prof Djamgoz says of Akrit: "He is generating ideas based upon what he knows, in an idealistic sort of way, without being in full grip of reality, without knowing how difficult it is to turn the ideas into practical realities".

Just how intelligent is Akrit? Team Focus, the UK's leading I.Q. analysts agree to test him. For Akrit this was to prove a disappointment. His exceptional results in verbal and numeracy tests were countered by poor practical tests, particularly in the area of pattern matching. Because of this wide range of results Team Focus chose not to give him a final rating.

Rosemary Facer, a childhood psychologist, put forward the theory that Akrit had been an early developer accounting for the good results and because of this early genius he had missed out on later schooling accounting for the poor practical results. These results do not affect what Akrit may achieve, but he needs help, a wise friend to talk to.

The Professor's analysis is that Akrit needs to obsess less and enjoy more. He thinks Akrit shows great potential but it needs to be properly guided.

Akrit returned home to India, more mature, more realistic, but this precocious young man is still convinced that he will find a cure for cancer.

From A Waiter To An IAS Officer!

2008-10-30T22:20:00.000+05:30

K Jayaganesh's story is awe-inspiring. He failed the Civil Service Examination six times, but he did not lose heart. On his seventh attempt -- his last chance -- he passed with a rank of 156 and was selected for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).

Jayaganesh's story is inspiring not merely because he did not lose heart but also because he comes from a very poor background from a village in Tamil Nadu. Though he studied to be an engineer, he worked at odd jobs - even as a waiter for a short while – before he realized his dream of becoming an IAS officer.

Read the story of his Jayaganesh in his own words:

Childhood in a remote village

I was born and brought up in a small village called Vinavamangalam in Vellore District. My father (Krishnan), who had studied up to 10th standard, worked as a supervisor in a leather factory. My mother was a housewife. I am the eldest in the family and have two sisters and a brother. I studied up to the 8th standard in the village school and completed my schooling in a nearby town.

I was quite good at studies and always stood 1st. Coming from a poor family, I had only one ambition in life -- to get a job as fast as I could and help my father in running the family. My father earned Rs 4,500 as salary and he had to take care of the education of four children and run the family which, as you would agree, is very difficult.

So, after my 10th standard, I joined a polytechnic college because I was told I would get a job the moment I passed out from there. When I passed out with 91%, there was a chance for me to get entry to a Government Engineering College on merit. So I decided to join the Thanthai Periyar Government Engineering College to study Mechanical Engineering. My father supported my desire to study further.

Even while doing engineering, my ambition still was to get a job. If you look at my background, you will understand why I didn't have any big ambitions. Most of my friends in the village had studied only up to the 10th standard, and many did not even complete school. They worked as auto drivers or coolies or masons. I was the only one among my friends who went to college.

I understood the importance of education because of my parents. My father was the only one in his family to have completed school, so he knew the value of education. My parents saw to it that we children studied well.

In search of a job

Four days after I completed my engineering in 2000, I went to Bangalore in search of a job and I one without much difficulty. My salary was Rs 2,500 at a company that reconditioned tools.

It was in Bangalore that I started thinking about my village and my friends. I wondered, sadly, why none of them studied and worked in good companies. Because they had no education, they remained poor. There was not enough money to buy even proper food. There was no opportunity there; the only place they could work was the tannery in the nearby town. If they didn't get work at the tannery, they worked as auto drivers or coolies. In short, there was no one in my village to guide the young generation.

I thought would I be able to help my villagers in any way.

Getting interested in the Civil Service Examination

Till then, I had not even heard of something called the Civil Services Examination. It was only after I went to Bangalore and saw the world that I was exposed to many things. I came to know that a collector in a small place could do a lot. At that moment, I decided that I wanted to be an IAS officer.

I resigned and went home to prepare for the examination. I never thought resigning was risky because I had the confidence and knew I would do well.

My father also supported me wholeheartedly. He had just got a bonus of Rs 6,500 and he gave me that money to buy study material. I sat in my village and studied from the notes I received by post from Chennai.

Failed attempts

In my first two attempts, I could not even clear the preliminary examination. I had no idea how to prepare for the exam, what subjects to opt for and how to study. There was nobody to guide me.

I had taken Mechanical Engineering as my main subject. That's when I met Uma Surya in Vellore. He was also preparing for the examination. He told me that if I took sociology as an option, it would be easy.

Even with sociology as the main subject, I failed in the third attempt. But I was not disappointed. I knew why I was failing. I didn't have proper guidance. I started reading newspapers only after I started preparing for the examination! So you can imagine from what kind of background I came from.

To Chennai for coaching

When I came to know about the government coaching centre (external link) in Chennai, I wrote the entrance examination and was selected. We were given accommodation and training.

Because I got tips from those who passed out, I passed the preliminary in my fourth attempt. We were given free accommodation and food only till we wrote the main examination. After that, we had to move out. I didn't want to go back to the village but staying in Chennai was expensive.

I tried to get a job as an engineer but my efforts turned futile. I then decided to look for a part time job so that I would have time to study.

Job as a waiter in Chennai

I got a job as a billing clerk for computer billing in the canteen at Sathyam Cinemas. I also worked as a server during the interval. It never bothered me that I, a Mechanical Engineer, preparing for the civil services, had to work as a server. I had only one aim -- to stay on in Chennai to pass the examination.

Interview in Delhi

After I got the job at the Sathyam Cinemas, I was called for the interview. As counseling was my hobby, a lot of questions were asked about counseling. I was not very fluent in English but I managed to convey whatever I wanted to. Perhaps I did not articulate well. I failed in the interview.

Preliminary again, the 5th time

Once again, I started from the beginning. Surprisingly, I failed in the preliminary itself. On analysis, I felt I did not concentrate on studies as I was working at Sathyam Cinemas.

I quit the job and joined a private firm to teach sociology to those preparing for the UPSC examinations. While I learnt the other subjects there, I taught sociology. Many friends of mine in Chennai helped me both financially and otherwise while I prepared for the examination.

Sixth attempt

I passed both the preliminary and the main in the sixth attempt but failed at the interview stage.

While preparing for the interview, I had written an examination to be an officer with the Intelligence Bureau and I was selected. I was in a dilemma whether to accept the job. I felt if I joined the IB, once again, my preparation to be an IAS officer would get affected. So, I decided not to join and started preparing for one last time.

Last attempt

I had to give the last preliminary just a few days after the previous interview. I was confused and scared. Finally, I decided to take the last chance and write the examination. Like I had hoped, I passed both the preliminary and the main.

The interview was in April, 2008 at Delhi. I was asked about Tamil Nadu, Kamaraj, Periyar, Tamil as a classical language, the link between politics and Tamil cinema etc. I was upset since I did not wish the interviewers at the start and they did not respond when I said thanks at the end. Both the incidents went on playing in my mind. I just prayed to God and walked back.

The day the results were out

I was extremely tense that day. I would know whether my dreams would be realised or not. I used to tell God, please let me pass if you feel I am worthy of it.

I went to a playground and sat there meditating for a while. Then, I started thinking what I should do if I passed and what I should do if I didn't.

I had only one dream for the last seven years and that was to be an IAS officer.

156th rank

Finally when the results came, I couldn't believe! I had secured the 156th rank out of more than 700 selected candidates. It's a top rank and I am sure would get me into the IAS. I felt like I had a won a war that had been going on for many years. I felt free and relieved. The first thing I did was call my friends in Chennai and then my parents to convey the good news.

Warm welcome in the village

The reception I got in my village was unbelievable. All my friends, and the entire village, were waiting for me when I alighted from the bus. They garlanded me, burst crackers, played music and took me around the village on their shoulders. The entire village came to my house to wish me. That was when I saw unity among my villagers. It was a defining moment for me.

What I want to do

I worked really hard without losing faith in myself to realise my dream. My real work starts now. I want to try hard to eradicate poverty and spread the message of education to all people. Education is the best tool to eradicate poverty. I want Tamil Nadu.

Muktha Muktha

2008-06-16T23:35:00.000+05:30

Muktha, the mega serial by TN Seetharam has come back in its new avatar. Now it is called Muktha.... Muktha... The first episode started off today at 9.30 pm. Well, here is the latest update on the same. Arundhati is now divorced from Manmohan. She is a mother to a kid who has problems with her Kidneys.

In todays episode, Arundathi is shown to be travelling in an auto with her kid. She is back in town to get her daughter treated by a nephrologist, who incidentally happens to stay in the street next to the lawyer CSP's house. CSP is now a successfull lawyer.

CSP and Arundhati have a conversation in which she reveals that it was her ego, which probably destroyed her marriage to Manmohan. CSP recalls that she had reported against her own husband who was a minister. That report had resulted in Shivkrishna Desai having to resign as the Chief Minister of the state. That report by her had caused the marriage to break. She also says that she curses herself for making that report. However she nor CSP dont reveal what the report is all about. The heart breaking scene is when Arundathi asks for money from CSP. She asks for 500 Rupees. CSP readily gives the same, but on learning that the kid has to undergo some tests, he hands her another 1500 rupees.

After finishing the tests proceed to her cousins house. Her cousin's mannerisms surpisingly resembles Gauri(Aru's brother). There Arundathi is kind of mocked at by her Uncle.

Rabbi Shergill - Bulla Ki Jaana Maen Kaun

2008-05-07T23:31:00.001+05:30

Bulla Ki Jaana mein kaun !!

Imagine! Kenya sings Jana Gana Mana for India

2008-04-15T21:50:00.001+05:30

This is something really nice :)... Kenyans singing Jana Gana Mana... The video is stark with visuals of Kenya all across... A must watch for anyone

Disco Dancer - Jimmy Aaja

2008-04-12T00:37:00.001+05:30

This song still floors me after nearly 2 decades... I was in my chaddies when this movie released. However I remember this song for a different reason altogether. The first time I heard this song I burst out laughing.. My neighbour's Dog was called Jimmy ... and every night the lady of the house used to call out "Jimmy.... aaja" :)). The Dog as well its owners have passed away in time, but those moments are still fresh in my mind... Of the dog lapping up dinner... Those moments still ring in my ear :p

Louis Armstrong - We Have All The Time In World

2008-04-10T22:32:00.001+05:30

From the movie "Her Majesty's Secret Service" . The movie where Bond becomes a widower!!

The Bay Watch Dog!!

2008-03-31T10:57:00.000+05:30

This is bound to give Pamela Anderson and her likes a few goose bumps. Imagine being replaced by Dogs ?? Well that is precisely what a Dog has been doing rather successfully at the famed Chennai Marina Beach. Responding to the name of Julie , she plays the role of the beach guard to the hilt.

Here is the clincher, she joined the force voluntarily when she started pulling out people who go further into the waters.

Here is what CNN IBN had to say about this Dog....

No one can miss the rather unlikely member of the Anna Square police station in Chennai, Julie — unlikely because Julie is a dog. She is the newest member of the Anna Square police station and joined just about a month ago.

However, Julie is not a police watchdog, but has voluntary taken up the duty of patrolling the shores of the Marina beach.

Inspector S Sekar says, "A small child was playing very close to the water just a couple of days ago. Julie barked at her and pulled her to the shore to safety. That's when people got to know her."

Policemen say over 1,600 people have drowned in the stretch of beach near Anna Square police station in the last year. Among them were 231 children.

Julie keeps an eye on the crowd and pulls back people who stray too close to the water.

She has become a favourite among the policemen and the regular beach-goers — and that might have something to do with the fact that nobody has drowned in the area ever since she's taken up her duty about a month ago.

The police are now thinking of using Julie's services for other purposes as well.

S Sekar says, "We are planning to train her and other dogs like her to catch people dealing with narcotic substances on the beach."

And Julie seems to be enjoying her new role as Chennai's special cop.

Climate Change to affect the Mumbai coast line

2008-03-31T10:51:00.000+05:30

According to studies made recently the enrtire Mumbai coastline features like Chowpatty, Chatrapathi Shivaji Airport, Gateway of India etc will be under water within the next 100 years or so. This is according to a study made by Sudhir Chella Rajan, from the Humanities Department of IIT Chennai.

Here is the article in more detail

The Gateway of India will be wiped off the Mumbai skyline. Bhelpuri at Chowpatty will become the stuff of grandmother's tales.

No flights will take off from Chhatrapati Shivaji airport. No couple will canoodle at the Marine Drive promenade and even heirs to the bungalow of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan will not be able to resist being evicted from their home.

Ninety-two years from now, all these landmarks of Mumbai will be underwater. That's the apocalypse scenario drawn up in a report titled 'Climate Migrants in South Asia: Estimates and Solutions' that has been commissioned by Greenpeace, a non-government organization.

Prepared by climate expert and professor from the humanities department of IIT Chennai, Sudhir Chella Rajan, the report says that a potential increase in temperatures by 4 to 5 degrees due to greenhouse emissions at the current rate would mean a corresponding rise in sea levels of up to five metres by 2100.

This, in turn, would imply that approximately 50 million Indians would be rendered homeless and become 'climate migrants'.

"The low elevation coastal zone (LECZ), which comprises the coastal region that is less than 10 metres above average sea level, is obviously at direct risk. Even prime commercial properties like the Backbay complex and the Bandra-Kurla complex fall into this category. This means that it's not just the average Koli who will be affected but even Mannat (superstar SRK's Bandra Bandstand bungalow) would be on the wrong side of the coastline once the sea level rises," said Greenpeace activist Shweta Ganesh Kumar.

Greenpeace envisages that human migration 92 years hence would be equivalent to 10 times the movement seen during Partition. "This means that even the limited space in your Virar-Churchgate local will be affected," she added.

However, Rakesh Kumar from the National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) felt the figures in the Greenpeace study seemed exaggerated.

"This can create a scare in the minds of the people. According to estimates of the intergovernmental panel of climate change (IPCC), the rise in sea levels by 2011 is estimated at one metre. There will be submersion, but only in the low-lying areas. At most, the foundations of buildings near the shore may be weakened due to saline formation," said Kumar.

Greenpeace activists, however, are on a mission to raise awareness about the impending doom. Around 40 Greenpeace activists or 'Blue Busters' sporting symbolic blue raincoats hit the city streets on Sunday.

Blue cautionary signs, saying 'Climate Change Zone Ahead' with illustrations of drowning individuals bearing a distinct resemblance to traditional traffic signs, were put up along the Bandra Kurla Complex and other areas.

Greenpeace Climate and Energy campaigner Brikesh Singh said, "We want to alert Mumbaikars to the blue future they have in store if steps are not taken to fight global warming. If we don't act now, our city of dreams will be caught up in a never-ending nightmare, and we are the last generation that can prevent this from happening." The 'Blue Alert' signs were part of a Greenpeace campaign launched in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Kochi, Panaji and Puri.

"The campaign aims at bringing home the reality of climate change to the common man and empowering people to force their MPs to speak out about the issue of climate change," said Singh.

Greenpeace activists will slap token 'eviction-warning' notices on the doors of structures that may be affected. These include the homes of actors Shah Rukh Khan, Rekha and Farhan Akhtar.

THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI

2008-03-31T00:21:00.001+05:30

The whistled version of Colonel Bogey's march. Taken from the movie The Bridge over the River Kwai, remains a classic and memorable piece of music... Alec Guiness his part to perfection and so does Japanese Commandant of the POW Camp ...

12 Days of Christmas

2008-03-27T12:12:00.001+05:30

a Damn cute song :p

Kumbhakarna

2008-03-13T22:36:00.000+05:30

G.N. MOHAN, driving down from Hyderabad to Bangalore on a rainy evening, spots Kumbhakarna being furiously woken from his slumber to fight the vanara sene. But wait…

Not on the pages of Ramayana, but at a construction site on the Andhra-Karnataka border.

The statue tells a story, of course, but there is another story inside it. This is an auditorium. The head is the stage, the belly is the gallery, and the legs are the entry and exit points.

The statue was conceived by former Anantapur Collector Someshkumar and given shape to by Visakhapatnam-based Architect Venkat three years ago to make people alive to issues like HIV/AIDS, corruption and environmental pollution. “Though the ‘concrete’ Kumbhakarna will continue to sleep, we want people to awaken and shed their indifference to the problems facing the society,” District Tourism Officer Biju George says.

I must admit, I for a moment wondered if the entry and exit were the same :p

Infants charred in hospital

2008-03-13T12:33:00.000+05:30

Strange but true. The hand that was supposed to give life, has taken that very life. Hey, am not talking of a doctor, but of extremely safe devices like Incubators and Baby Warming devices.

Here is more on that

2 infants charred in hospital gadgets

Thu, Mar 13 10:31 AM

This is a freak, horrific tragedy of the kind that happens only rarely. On Wednesday, it happened twice, in the space of two hours, in two Indian cities.

Two prematurely born babies were roasted alive after electrical warming gadgets in which they had been kept burst into flames in government hospitals in Delhi and Ahmedabad. In both cases, electrical short circuits were probably to blame.

The machines - an infant warmer in Delhi and an incubator in Ahmedabad - are normally very safe. Several doctors that Hindustan Times spoke to in Delhi could not recall any such case previously.

An incubator is a heated case in which a baby is placed; an infant warmer is like an open plate that is heated from above by an umbrella-like mechanism. The Delhi accident happened at Bhagwan Mahawir Hospital in Pitampura, where an infant warmer burst into flames at around 2.

30 a.m.

The five-day-old baby died before her mother, sleeping in the next ward, could reach her. The woman alleged hospital staff had prevented her from rushing to the burning machine.

"As soon as I heard my baby crying, I ran towards her from my ward. I saw the machine was on fire.

I cried for help, but instead of helping the baby, the nursing staff held me back. If they had let me go, my child would be alive today," the woman, Kamlesh, said.

She and her husband, Prakash Kumar, ragpickers from Shakurpur, have filed a complaint with the Mongolpuri police, accusing the hospital administration of negligence. The police have filed a case, and Delhi Health Minister Yoganand Shastri has asked the hospital for a report on the incident within 36 hours.

The Ahmedabad tragedy happened at 4.15 am.

An incubator containing a three-day-old infant caught fire at the municipal Shardaben Hospital. Three other incubators in the same room also caught fire, but hospital staff removed the babies in them before they were seriously hurt.

The dead baby's mother is in shock. She had had the child after a 10-year wait.

Hospital sources said that the incubator was more than a decade old but was functioning normally. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has ordered an inquiry into the fire, and sent the burnt-out machine for forensic examination.

The Narendra Modi government has announced a compensation of Rs 50,000 for the couple from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund, and the corporation has decided to waive all their medical bills. The Delhi hospital too has announced an internal inquiry.

"It was a very unfortunate accident. The machine was new and in good working condition.

We are not sure how the fire started but we suspect a short circuit," said Dr Ashok Kumar Dang, Medical Superintendent. Neonatalogists said infant warming machines are safe and ISO 9001 certified, though accidents can happen anytime, anywhere.

"I've never heard of something like this happening, and the cause of the fire should be investigated," said a senior paediatrian at Safdarjang Hospital, who declined to be named.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/hindustantimes/20080313/r_t_ht_nl_general/tnl-2-infants-charred-in-hospital-gadget-7244580_1.html

O Yelliruve Manava Kaduva Rupasi ye -Ananth Nag

2008-03-05T17:02:00.001+05:30

One of my favourite kannada songs :)

The Symond's saga continues

2008-02-25T12:11:00.000+05:30

The Symonds and controversy are almost becoming synonymous. Symonds spewed a few words to Ishant because he got out to him. Ishant hit back and ofcourse he was tonked off his match fees, while the initiator Symonds gets away scot free. Time and again, Indian players react to abuses heaped on them by players from other countries(read White) and get punished while those who hurled them get away scot free. Well the saga continues.

Boom Boom

2008-02-24T18:39:00.001+05:30

Here is the original song "Boom Boom" from the movie Star. Sung by the sexy voiced Nazia Hassan, this song is said to be inspired by "I feel love" by Donna Summers. I dint find anything similar between the 2 songs. Except for the beats... There are some good songs in this movie. Kumar Gaurav was the biggest dud Bollywood ever discovered. The remix was equally a bigger hit which starred Anupama Verma.

Revolting Paes

2008-02-24T15:31:00.000+05:30

In what ails almost every Indian Sport, politics has struck the Indian Tennis. The entire Tennis team has revolted against Leander Paes, the Captain. Trouble has been brewing against the Indian Captain for sometime now. He has been in the thick of things ever since he started opting to play rubbers which made him look like a Saviour and Hero. It is said that Leander chose to play the final rubber despite other players capable of beating the opposition. All this only to gain the title of a saviour.

This is precisely what happens when players consider themselves indispensable and continue playing on and on until even the public gets bored of their appearances. Worse, they block the growth of other players who would be more than keen to play for the country. It is quite but natural for them to revolt. Rather than help others gain success, these older players are more keen on protecting their turf.

Paes too has been no exception. Some of his biggest wins have come only in the Davis Cups. No tournaments, no ATP wins, no great ranking to boast of. While he might claim he gives his best for the country, in most cases it can be easily seen that he rather portrayed himself as a saviour than playing great tennis.

It is seriously time that our Elder players start retiring when their time is due and let others play. They cannot hang on and on and on until they are told to go.

Here are a few links to this story
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/leander-no-leader-davis-cup-team-wants-him-out/59702-5.html
http://www.rediff.com/sports/2008/feb/24davis.htm
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/showsports.aspx?id=SPOEN20080042213

Prostitution and IPL !! They are the same!!!

2008-02-20T23:40:00.000+05:30

I found this interesting post on churumuri.wordpress.com about IPL and prostitution.

7 reasons IPL player auction is like prostitution

ARVIND SWAMINATHAN writes from Madras: OK, I am a cricket purist, so maybe I am plain prejudiced. OK, I earn peanuts, so maybe I am filled with bottomless envy. But am I the only one disgusted by the spectacle of cricket players being “auctioned” to the highest bidder like a 40 X 60 site, or Britney Spears‘ soiled underwear on eBay?

Of hearing TV anchors and correspondents say Player X has been “bought” by this industrialist, or Player Y has been “sold to” that film star for Z crore, plus or minus a few lakhs. Yes, it happens in other sports, but should suits and celebs be haggling about a cricketer’s worth like my mother haggles about bhendi or badanekayi?

As a free-marketeer, it’s not for me to dish out the champagne-socialist view (familiar to churumuri readers!) of the irony of it all: that, in a nation where half a billion live on less than a dollar a day, a few dozen already-wealthy players will be earning enough in 40 overs over a few weeks to feed a few millions, blah-blah.

But, as the “auction” of 77 cricketers for the Indian Premier League dragged on all afternoon, I was left wondering whether there was any difference at all between the bidding for the boys in the boardroom and the bidding for the girls at street corners. Aside, that is, from the corporate ambience, and the absence of cops.

Think about it.

1) There is no sentimental attachment between the pleasure girls and their owner; it’s all about how much dough the girl can whip up for the madam by doing business with pleasure. Ditto, there is no sentimental attachment between the pleasure boys and their team owner. It’s all about how much the owner can afford and what the player can fetch him/ her, and it may not necessarily be through his on-field performances.

2) Before buying their services, strange men wearing strange clothes evaluate the pleasure girls at the street corner by looking at the “figure” from a distance. Before buying their services, strange men and women wearing strange clothes and even stranger spectacles evaluate the pleasure boys by looking at their “figures” on laptops and handhelds.

3) Menacing looking bald men, wearing thick gold chains and six rings on five fingers, supervise the transaction at street corners while picking their buck teeth. Menacing looking bald men, wearing thick gold chains and six rings on five fingers, supervise the transaction in the boardroom, while hissing into their bluetooth.

4) The pleasure girl’s loyalty is to the highest bidder for the night (or for the hour). The pleasure boy’s loyalty is to the highest bidder for the season, unless old age, injury or retirement strike, whichever comes first.

5) The pleasure girls display their skills behind closed doors. The pleasure boys display their skills in open stadia. And in this new version of the game, the pleasure lasts just about as long in both forms.

6) The girls give pleasure usually to one recipient at a time, but sometimes more if the action is captured and uploaded on YouTube by some idiot-deviant. The boys give pleasure to millions, through legally sold tube rights but with one key difference: with their clothes on.

7) The pleasure girl never asks the customer who you are, where you are from, what you do for a living. All she is bothered about is the crackle of the notes at the end of it. Ditto, the pleasure boy. All he is bothered about is the crackle of notes as you buy Kingfisher or Reliance products.

The pleasure girls and pleasure seekers are told ad nauseam to go for protection to prevent the spread of AIDS. For the sake of cricket, and overall sanity of the cricket lovers, hopefully the pleasure boys will wear the condom of common sense—besides their pads, gloves and guards—before the disease becomes a pandemic of unmanageable proportions.

If we turn our nose at the sale of human bodies (and talents) of one kind, how do we end up silently applauding the sale of human bodies (and talents) of another kind?

Fidel Castro retires!!!

2008-02-19T17:23:00.000+05:30

Fidel Castro retires. At 81 he is probably the last living relic of the cold war era to survive for so long. To his credit, he has remained as charismatic as ever. At the fore front of Communism, he is best remembered for the Cuban missile crises which almost brought the world to brink of a nuclearwar. He will also be remembered for leading from the front during the infamous Bay of Pigs invasion where American backed rebels invaded Cuba, only to be routed as quickly as they came in. Castro led from the front and ensured it was crushed with a mighty hand.

He has also survived numerous attempts to kill him. From Cigar based bombs to powder based hair removers... the CIA tried it all. Call it the Devil's luck or whatever, Castro survived every attempt by the CIA to kill him. He not only survived the CIA attempts, but probably survived everyone else in the world who were ruling their countries at that point of time. While the collapse of Soviet Union did hurt Castro to a certain extent, he went on and on until he fell seriously ill sometime in 2006. Cuba has since been ruled by Castro's brother.

Castro has led a life that would give anyone the goose bumps. From a revolutionary to the leader of country that is holding on despite one of the longest naval blockades in naval history of the world, it has been a great ride.

Thanks for being what you are and giving us icons like Che Guevera, yourself and ofcourse the effervescent Cuban Cigar. Adios Amigo! We will miss one of the most iconic characters of the 20th century.

Brtiney goes Bi polar

2008-02-03T16:09:00.000+05:30

It is a sad case for the once pop princess. From being a pop princess, she has reduced to tramp, who goes around with sleeping for days, survives on Red Bull and Laxatives, accuses her mother of sleeping with her boyfriend Adnan..... well , its a crazy scene for her. But her disease is turning out to be a winner for the paparazzi. Their trash is being consumed by millions and is driving up sales for many magazines.

http://www.ndtvmusic.com/story.asp?id=ENTEN20080040046

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7223625.stm

She probably has paid the price of her early success in life.

If you wanted to know more about Bi polar diseases, here is the link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipolar_Disorder

Mungaru Male - Onde Ondu Sari

2008-01-15T17:53:00.001+05:30

Here is the super duper hit song from Mungaru Male !!

2007 Top 10 weirdest USB drives!

2008-01-01T00:23:00.000+05:30

1.5 years ago I published the original ‘Top 10 weirdest USB drives‘. Over 500 000 people have visited the original page, and it included all of the sushi drives, the thumb drive and the now classical barbi drive. I’ve received quite many comments and emails about the list, and I know that some of you guys wants an updated list. So here it is - Top 10 weirdest USB drives, Part II’. All new drives!

10. The USB Puppet Bags

Ok, I admit - this isn’t a complete USB drive - it’s only a masquerade costume for your boring typical, standard USB drive. Quite weird design, ey?

The USB Puppet Bags [everythingusb.com]

9. The Altoids USB mod

How about a nice little metal Altoids box sticking out of your computer? This nice little USB drive is designed by Phillip Mates.

The Altoids USB mod [flickr.com]

8. The USB mince pie

Check out this incredible detailed and accurate mince pie reproduction. I wonder why they placed that little LED on top, as I think it would be even cooler without it.

The USB mince pie [flickr.com]

7. Wooden memory sticks

I really like these wooden USB drives from the dutch company oooms. They are quite expensive (about $90 for the 1GB version) but they are all made out of real wooden pieces by hand.

Wooden memory sticks< [oooms.nl]

6. The Holy bible drive

This USB drive comes with the bible on it. The connector is hidden inside the bible so you have to use a little sliding switch before you can use it. I wonder if you’ll go to hell if you store prOn on the holy bible?

The holy bible drive [davidsteele.com]

5. Crazy rabbit usb drive

This freaky little rabbit USB drive is designed by Micah Laaker, the design manager for Yahoo!’s personalization, RSS and membership teams. Cool one, right?

Rabbit usb drive [Flickr.com]

4. The Bowling ball USB drive

Ok, now things are really getting weird. How would you like to drag around on a full weigh (16 pounds / 7 kg) ten-pin bowling ball? This one is actually a fully functional USB drive that is capable of breaking your little laptop into pieces. It’s designed by Chris Spurgeon.

The Bowling ball USB drive [spurgeonworld.com]

3. Chewbacca drive

Jeremy Harrington is the man behind this really nice Star Wars Chewbacca USB drive. It’s not a geeky little Chewiw mimobot - this is the real thing! Yeah! Hear me roar!

Chewie USB drive [flickr.com]

2. The Humping dog USB memory

Yes! We’re finally getting closer to the number one position, only one mor to go. Here’s a really weird little USB drive that has one thing that is really unique - it features moving parts. As soon as you plug the humping dog into your computer it starts humping it. Check out this video clip to see it in action! Who! Who! Who let the dogs out!

The humping dog USB memory [digitalworldtokyo.com]

1. The Teddy USB memory

Drumroll please! Tada, here’s the final winner. It’s a bit different than the last winner (the USB Barbie drive) but it’s still a really cool and weird USB drive. You just rip the head off and plug it in! It’s designed by Sergio de Ana and as it doesn’t look like a typical USB drive, it’s probably quite safe to store data in it as long as you keep it’s head on! I bet you have to be careful with this one to not scare the kids, hehe.

The Teddy USB [flickr.com]

Honorable mentions

And here’s a few that didn’t make it into the final list, but still are worth a link.

The Tako Yaki

Ukulele Orchestra of GB - The Good the Bad the Ugly

2007-12-16T23:39:00.001+05:30

Here is a great version of the Good Bad and the Ugly

Britney strips at Hustler

2007-12-10T16:44:00.000+05:30

Washington: Pop star Britney Spears reportedly stripped off in a store full of customers.

According to the reports, the 'Toxic' singer stunned the browsers and the staff of a Hustler store in West Hollywood on Sunset Boulevade when she reportedly took off her clothes to change into a pair of underwear right in the middle of the shop.

As to why the singer did so was because she lost her temper in the store after being told she could not try on the underwear in the changing room. A source said that Britney reportedly headed to the fitting rooms but shop employees "told her they don't allow people to try on underwear.”

An eyewitness claimed that the troubled singer promptly undressed, in full view of other customers, in order to try on an undergarment. "The employees kept saying 'Don't change out here!'. She's just like, 'Well, I couldn't take them in the fitting room!' It was like dealing with a child," the eyewitness said.

Another source claimed that Britney left the store without paying for a wig and that the singer was unhappy about having to pay for the goods. "The staff told her she had to pay, and she rolled her eyes, but paid with a credit card on her way out, she went up to a mannequin, snatched the wig off the head, and stole it," the source added.

Lindsay does a Bara Brost!!!!

2007-12-10T16:36:00.000+05:30

First was Lindsay being voted as the dumbest celebrity, now she does a Bara Brost with her Bra. Looks like she decided that wearing a bra was a thumbs down on the sexual freedom of women and decided not to wear it !!! Here are more details

Braless Lindsay exposed more than she intended while going for dinner to Koi restaurant in LA.

The starlet was snapped by shutterbugs on her way to the restaurant, however her thin sheer top could not escape the flashes and showed off her twin assets.

Lindsay earlier came into news for leaving her underwear at home.

Meanwhile, the 21-year-old recently topped the New York Daily News’ list of 50 dumbest people in Hollywood.

Hugo Montenegro - The Good,The Bad,And The Ugly

2007-12-06T16:37:00.001+05:30

Another version of the theme from the movie The Good The Bad and the Ugly

Return of the Yeti

2007-12-02T20:01:00.000+05:30

The Yeti is back in news again. An American expedition team has claimed to have found foot prints of the mysterious Yeti. They have taken footprints of the same and are planning to have it analyzed in a US laboratory. However the local sherpa's are doubting the version. Their claim is that earlier footprints have had 4 toes, but this one has 5 toes. But they say this could be a different creature altogether as the size of the footprint is rather massive.

Here are more details

An American TV crew which claimed to have found footprints of the mysterious Yeti in the Himalayas plan to get castings from the prints analysed in the US, even as the Nepal Mountaineering Association expressed doubts over the discovery.

Josh Gates, leader of the TV crew which is working on a Sci-Fi serial called Destination Truth, said he took three castings from the footprints discovered by his team and will would them analysed in the US in an attempt to prove that the mythical creature really exists.

But Ang Tsering Sherpa, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, said the footprints were most probably made by a mountain bear.

"Yeti's footprints found in the past had four toes whereas the present footprints have five toes," he said.

However, the shape and the size of the footprint is big and it must be that of some unusual creature, he added.

On November 28, the American team found the 12 inch-long footprints at an altitude of 2,850 m in Khumbu region on way to Mount Everest.

The team members said they saw the fresh foot prints when they were returning from Khumbu by the confluence of Ghettekhola and Dudhkoshi rivers, near Monju village.

In the past, there have been a number of reported sightings of the Yeti in the Himalayas. In 1925, Greek photographer N A Tombazi had claimed that he had seen an ape-like creature on way to the Everest.

British climber Eric Shimpton and Michael Ward found footprints attributed to the creature in 1951 near Nepal-China border in the Himalayas. The father of Tenzing Norgey Sherpa, the first person to climb Everest, also claimed to have seen the Yet.

Here is another story that CNN IBN carried about the Yeti

oogle

Kathmandu: An American TV host who travelled to the Himalayas to film a show on the mysterious yeti said Sunday he took castings from three footprints that could prove the legendary giant ape exists and is living on Mount Everest.

Josh Gates, the host of Sci Fi's ''Destination Truth'' show, said he and his crew found three footprints Nov

28 when they were investigating reported yeti sightings by Sherpas and farmers living in the remote Khumbu region.

One print was clearly from a right foot with five toes, and was about 33 centimetres (13 inches) long, but the other two were only partial prints, Gates said. The footprints were found on rock and sand, he said.

The TV crew planned to have

the castings analysed in the United States, he said, without providing details.

''We are excited about wh

at we found,'' Gates said before leaving Nepal on Sunday.

Ang Tshering, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, said he had talked to the American film crew and heard their story, but was not convinced they had found yeti prints.

''It could most likely be footprints of the mountain bear which is found in the area,'' Tshering said. ''They showed five toes in the footprint cast they brought back, but according to the legends we hear from the villagers the yeti is only supposed to have four toes.''

Sherpas and sheep herder

s have for years told stories of a giant ape-like creature that roams the remote mountainous area near Mount Everest. There is no confirmed photographic evidence to support their claimed sightings.

Gates' claims were not independently verified before he left Nepal, and he seemed to accept that the prints may not be enough to prove the yeti's existence.

''The unfortunate thing about footprint castings is that they are rarely conclusive,'' he said.

Tshering said he believed there is something unusual wandering the Himalayas, but that Gates' discovery would probably not prove anything new.

''There is a mysterious animal that exists in this region but that does not necessarily mean it is a yeti,'' he said. ''It is still hard to say if this is a myth or reality.''

Amer. Univ. of Antigua

NYS Approved - Hospital Integrated US Med Curriculum & US Clerkships
Ads by Google

Related Links
Yeti Mystery : answer now lies in US Lab

Miss China is the Miss World

2007-12-02T10:13:00.001+05:30

Miss China was crowned the new Miss World yesterday. Now that she has been crowned , she is the beauty with brains, flawless body with a striking personality, oodles of grace and a dash of talent too.... As usual our Miss India's missed the beat

Miss China, Zi Lin Zhang is Miss World 2007!

Beauty with brains, flawless body with a striking personality, oodles of grace and a dash of talent too...there's a lot that goes into making a beauty queen.

With 2 billion people across the globe watching a serenading grand finale, it was none other than, Miss China, Zi Lin Zhang who swept the title of Miss World 2007.

The contestant from the host country won the hearts of the audiences and judges alike and made it to the top slot to be crowned the most beautiful woman in the world.

The event was taking place in the tropical city of Sanya, China and Zi Lin Zhang has surely brought million dollar smiles on the faces of her proud countrymen.

Seen here, Zi Lin Zhang in a euphoric mood as she is crowned Miss World by Miss World 2006- Tatana Kucharova from Czech Republic.

Smiles galore for Miss World Zi Lin

After winning the coveted crown, Zi Lin is surely on cloud nine!

Seen here, this 23 year old pretty girl is surrounded by other contestants. The glow on her face truly reflects her happiness and pride.

(Pic courtesy: AFP/Mark Ralston)

Miss World 2007 Ist runner-up

As Zi Lin woos the world with her beauty, Angola's Micaela is also not so far behind.

This young lady who aspires to be a judge one day has impressed the judges enough to be the first runner-up at Miss World 2007.

Seen here flashing a million watt smile on receiving the title.

Miss World IInd runner-up

Mexico's Carolina's tall slender body and gracious personality made an impact too.

This 19 year old lass who loves to travel, came dancing adorably to collect her Miss World IInd runner-up crown.

(Pic courtesy: AFP/Mark Ralston)

The world at her feet

But the night truly belonged to Zi Lin Zhang, who has every reason to celebrate. With more than 100 contestants competing for the crown, the battle at the pageant was a fierce one.

Zi Lin, who works as a company secretary, after attaining a Degree in Business Administration was a clear favourite right from the start.

(Pic courtesy: Reuters/Nir Elia)

Best Model

This year Miss World was hosted by China and the young Chinese beauty Zi Lin Zhang made the audience go week in their knees with her 'oh-so-sizzling' figure. She not only won the coveted Miss World 2007 title but was also awarded the Best Model.

Seen here, Zi Lin Zhang of China poses as she receives the Best Model award at the coveted pageant.

(Pic courtesy: AFP/Mark Ralston)

Best Dress!

Besides Zi Lin, there were other contestants too who might not have walked away with the crown but were recognized in one way or the other.

At the grand event, Miss South Korea too swept a few hearts with her gorgeous evening gown. She went on to win the Best Dress award.

Seen here, Eun Ju Cho, Miss South Korea celebrates as she receives the Best Dress award during the finals of the Miss World Beauty Pageant at the Beauty Crown Theatre in Sanya.

Beauty with a purpose

Miss World has always claimed to be a pageant with a soul, not just plain beauty.

This year it has co-incided with the World AIDS Day and has joined hands to promote the prevention cause.

Seen here, Valeska Saab Gomez (L) of Ecuador and Ka Yi Cheung (R) of Hong Kong smiling as they jointly receive the Beauty with a Purpose award during the finals of the Miss World Beauty Pageant at the Beauty Crown Theatre in Sanya.

(Pic courtesy: AFP/Mark Ralston)

Oh, what beauties!

With each contestant equally talented and beautiful, selecting a winner from this crop was definitely not an easy task.

Seen here, contestants from all across the globe gather to grace the stage of Miss World 2007.

(Pic courtesy: AP/Kin Cheung)

Contestants shake a leg

Contestants of Miss World Peagant 2007 perform during the grand event, clad in sexy bikinis.

Each girl flashing her best smile and making the right moves, though it was eventually Miss China, Zi Lin Zhang who stood apart from the rest and went on to become Miss World 2007.

(Pic courtesy: Reuters/Nir Elias)

They are rich yet they do not splurge

2007-12-02T09:55:00.000+05:30

I have seen people spending a lot of money that they do not have (read credit cards and loans)... All in the name of having one life and enjoying the same. All is done in the name of having the good things of life without a bother for whats in the future.

But here are a few billionaires who despite being the billionaires they are, lead a life that would shame these spenders. They are mighty rich yet lead a simple life. read on, courtesy of Forbes.com

Sure, billionaires fly private jets, live in massive mansions, dine at the world's finest restaurants and shop at Gucci, Prada and Louis Vuitton. After all, they're rich. But some of the world's wealthiest people aren't so flashy. They're frugal--for billionaires, at least.

Take John Caudwell, who got his start as an auto-repair shop owner and went on to create a $2.2 billion fortune (when last measured by Forbes in March) by selling his 85% stake in cellphone outfit the Caudwell Group in 2005. An avid sportsman, he used to bike 14 miles to work every day. He cuts his own hair because going to a barber is a waste of time. He buys his clothes off the rack at British retailer Marks & Spencer.

"I don't need Saville Row suits," he tells Forbes, adding that splurging on extremely pricey bottles of wine is often a waste. "I don't need to spend money to bolster my own esteem."

Caudwell does have his indulgences. He owns both a Ferrari and a Bentley.

Jim C. Walton, the Wal-Mart scion and member of America's richest family, has different taste in vehicles. He inherited his money--and spending habits--from father Sam. Worth $16.4 billion when we valued his fortune for the Forbes 400 list in September, Jim prefers pickup trucks to sports cars. Reportedly, he drives a 15-year-old Dodge Dakota.

Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad built a $33 billion fortune selling affordable furniture to the masses. Yet the self-made Swedish tycoon drives a 15-year-old Volvo, flies coach, tries to avoid wearing suits and often eats meals at lower-tier restaurants.

Indian billionaire Azim Premji made his $17.1 billion fortune through tech-services giant Wipro [Get Quote]. Despite being one of Asia's richest men, Premji drives a Toyota Corolla, flies coach and stays in company guest houses instead of five-star hotels when traveling on business. He even served food on paper plates at a lunch honoring his son's wedding.

Famously frugal investor Warren Buffett has been making headlines recently for railing against the Bush administration's tax policy and sticking up for the middle class. And he walks the walk: Despite earning $46 million in taxable income last year and boasting a net worth of $57 billion, he lives in the same home he bought for $31,500 nearly 50 years ago.

Stanford professor David Cheriton made his billions by introducing Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page to the venture capitalists at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He was rewarded with a sizable chunk of Google stock.

Canadian Cheriton says he prefers to ride his bike around his Palo Alto, Calif., neighborhood, and relies on an old Volkswagen van or a Honda sedan when he needs to get behind the wheel. He says he only flies commercial, prefers jeans to designer clothes and claims to reuse his teabags. He also cuts his own hair to save time going to a barber. His indulgence: two windsurfers.

When contacted about this story, Cheriton cited the Wikipedia definition of frugality: "The acquiring of and resourceful use of economic goods and services in order to achieve lasting and more fulfilling goals." He says, "That's certainly something I aspire to."

ee sanje yaakagidhe

2007-11-28T08:53:00.001+05:30

Another whammy by Sonu Nigam in kannada movies. After anisuthidhe, this one will be his next big hit. The number is already being requested frequently on kannada channels. Eee songu yake mugiyithu !!

Kiran Bedi opts for voluntary retirement

2007-11-27T17:30:00.000+05:30

Kiran Bedi has applied for volutary retirement. Though her stance has been that she is more interested in social and academic interest, it is very obvious that she was peeved over her being overlooked for the post of Delhi Police Commisioner. Our neta's have for sure ensured that no good deed or person goes unpunished. She was heading the Bureau of Police Research and Development, whatever that post meant.

Its very sad that she will be getting out of the very system that we all hoped she would help clean up. But on the contrary, she will have more freedom to participate in causes that are close to her heart. So we expect this fire brand officer to spew fire for causes that she represents.

Kiran should also consider joining politics. She has a squeaky clean image, is efficient, can haul up the babu's and the neta's in their own lair, she knows how the system works. Isnt she an ideal candidate to represent us in the Parliament ?? We need more people like her getting into politics , probably thats when we Indians can see more of us joining politics.

Kiran Bedi has also excelled in sports, she was the Asian Lawn Tennis Champion at the age of 22. However she will forever be remembered by generations ahead for 2 things,
one for lathi charging the lawyers without battling an eyelid and her reformist zeal to turn Tihar Jail into an Ashram.

May her spirit be there in all of us.

The Darwin Awards

2007-11-27T12:41:00.000+05:30

The Darwin Awards

These get scarier and scarier every year. They are finally out
again. You all know about the Darwin Awards - It's an annual
honour given to the person who did the gene pool the biggest
service by killing themselves in the most extraordinarily stupid
way. Last year's winner was the fellow who was killed by a Coke
machine which toppled over on top of him as he was attempting to
tip a free soda out of it.

And the nominees are:

9. A young Canadian man, searching for a way of getting drunk
cheaply, because he had no money with which to buy alcohol, mixed
gasoline with milk. Not surprisingly, this concoction made him
ill, and he vomited into the fireplace in his house. This
resulting explosion and fire burned his house down, killing both
him and his sister.

8. A 34-year-old white male found dead in the basement of his
home died of suffocation, according to police. He was
approximately 6'2" tall and weighed 225 pounds. He was wearing a
pleated skirt, white bra, black and white saddle shoes, and a
woman's wig. It appeared that he was trying to create a
schoolgirl's uniform look. He was also wearing a military gas
mask that had the filter canister removed and a rubber hose
attached in its place. The other end of the hose was connected to
one end of a hollow wooden tube approx. 12" long and 3" in
diameter. The tube's other end was inserted into his rectum for
reasons unknown, and was the cause of his suffocation. Police
found the task of explaining the circumstances of his death to
his family very awkward.

7. Three Brazilian men were flying in a light aircraft at low
altitude when another plane approached. It appears that they
decided to moon the occupants of the other plane, but lost
control of their own aircraft and crashed. They were all found
dead in the wreckage with their pants around their ankles.

6. A police officer in Ohio responded to a 911 call. She had no
details before arriving, except that someone had reported that
his father was not breathing. Upon arrival, the officer found the
man face down on the couch naked. When she rolled him over to
check for a pulse and to start CPR, she noticed burn marks around
his genitals. After the ambulance arrived and removed the man -
who was declared dead on arrival at the hospital - the police
made a closer inspection of the couch, and noticed that the man
had made a hole between the cushions. Upon flipping the couch
over, they discovered what had caused his death. Apparently, the
man had a habit of putting his penis between the cushions, down
into the hole and between two electrical sanders (with the
sandpaper removed, for obvious reasons). According to the story,
after his orgasm the discharge shorted out one of the sanders,
electrocuting him.

5. A 27-year-old French woman lost control of her car on a
highway near Marseilles and crashed into a tree, seriously
injuring her passenger and killing herself. As a commonplace road
accident, this would not have qualified for a Darwin nomination,
were it not for the fact that the driver's attention had been
distracted by her Tamagotchi key ring (pocket animal), which had
started urgently beeping for food as she drove along. In an
attempt to press the correct buttons to save the Tamagotchi's
life, the woman lost her own.

4. A 22-year-old Reston, VA, man was found dead after he tried to
use octopus straps to bungee jump off a 70-foot railroad trestle.
Fairfax County police said Eric Barcia, a fast-food worker, taped
a bunch of these straps together, wrapped one end around one
foot, anchored the other end to the trestle at Lake Accotink
Park, jumped and hit the pavement. Warren Carmichael, a police
spokesman, said investigators think Barcia was alone because his
car was found nearby. "The length of the cord that he had
assembled was greater than the distance between the trestle and
the ground" Carmichael said. Police say the apparent cause of
death was "Major trauma".

3. A man in Alabama died from rattlesnake bites. It seems that he
and a friend were laying a game of catch, using the rattlesnake
as a ball. The friend - no doubt a future Darwin Awards candidate
- was hospitalised.

2. Employees in a medium-sized warehouse in west Texas noticed
the smell of a gas leak. Sensibly, management evacuated the
building extinguishing all potential sources of ignition; lights,
power, etc. After the building had been evacuated, two
technicians from the gas company were dispatched. Upon entering
the building, they found they had difficulty navigating in the
dark. To their frustration, none of the lights worked. Witnesses
later described the sight of one of the technicians reaching into
his pocket and retrieving an object that resembled a cigarette
lighter. Upon operation of the lighter-like object, the gas in
the warehouse exploded, sending pieces of it up to three miles
away. Nothing was found of the technicians, but the lighter was
virtually untouched by the explosion. The technician suspected
of causing the blast had never been thought of as 'bright' by his
peers.

The latest nominee for this year's Darwin Award goes to....

1. Based on a bet by the other members of his threesome, Everitt
Sanchez tried to wash his own "balls" in a ball washer at the
local golf course. Proving once again that beer and testosterone
are a bad mix, Sanchez managed to straddle the ball washer and
dangle his scrotum in the machine. Much to his dismay, one of his
buddies upped the ante by spinning the crank on the machine with
Sanchez's scrotum in place, thus wedging them solidly in the
mechanism. Sanchez, who immediately passed his threshold of pain,
collapsed and tumbled from his perch. Unfortunately for Sanchez,
the height of the ball washer was more than a foot higher off the
ground than his testicles are in a normal stance, and the scrotum
was the weakest link. Sanchez's scrotum was ripped open during
the fall, and one testicle was plucked from him forever and
remained in the ball washer, while the other testicle was
compressed and flattened as it was pulled between the housing of
the washer, and the rotating machinery inside. To add insult to
injury, Sanchez broke a new $300.00 driver that he had just
purchased from the pro-shop, and was using to balance himself.
Sanchez was rushed to the hospital for surgery, and the remaining
threesome were asked to leave the course.

Bara Brost- follow up post

2007-11-27T10:57:00.000+05:30

I found a link which has women protesting by going barechested :). They also have a manifesto :). Here is the manifesto

Manifesto!

Bara Bröst is not committed to any political or religious views.We demand: - That women should be allowed to be topless in situations where it is accepted for men to be topless.

- That the breast should not be considered to be a part of the female genitalia.

- That the gender discriminating rules at the swimming pools are removed.

- That the norms that discriminates against women are worked with in schools and at workplaces and so on.

- That the politicians take their responsibility and act in this question.

Our goals:

A gender equal society where

- it is socially accepted for women to be topless in situations when it is accepted for men to do so.

- male and female bodies get an equal amount of space and on the same conditions.

- female bodies are not sexualized.

- no one has to feel like an object.

- women are not being discriminated against.

Who are allowed to become members?
Everyone that supports us are allowed to become members in the network.
For new members who want to do an action it is compulsory to attend a meeting before with the other people who are going to do the action.
To join the network, send an e-mail to barabrost@hotmail.com and tell us a bit about yourself.
————————————————————

Other news:

- Yesterday it was an action taking place in Stockholm. The activists where thrown out, however they got support from other guests in the pool who had heard about the network.

The link to the above manifesto is here

http://crisal1de.wordpress.com/2007/11/23/tutte-in-topless-in-piscina/

bara brost swimmers go topless in Sweden

Metallica - Ecstasy of gold Full Video Live

2007-11-26T23:11:00.001+05:30

This is Metallica's version of Ecstasy of gold.

Ennio Morricone - The Good, the bad and the ugly (concert)

2007-11-26T23:07:00.001+05:30

The Theme of the movie. Its a timeless classic !

Ennio Morricone - The Ecstasy of Gold (live in concert)

2007-11-26T22:59:00.001+05:30

Well, here is live recording of The Ecstasy of Gold (live in concert) from the movie "The Good , the Bad and the Ugly". That movie has been one of my all time favourites. For the uninitiated , this piece of music appears when Tuco runs around the grave yard looking for the grave of Arch Standler.

JD(S) seems to be heading for split

2007-11-26T12:22:00.000+05:30

Gowda and Son's antics seem to have antogonised MLA's to no end. A few of them with enough spine , have decided to part ways with the GD(S) party as they feel the betrayal of the BJP, could hurt their chances in the hustings to come. The leaders are led by MP Prakash , who has emerged as an unlikely rebel. Prakash has always been with the Gowda family and this comes as a surprise to everyone. But DG & S have always kept themselves ahead of everyone else. This isnt the first time that someone considered close to the family has walked out. There are other MLA's who have done so. Somanna, the very popular MLA from Binnypet was even called as one of his Son's by no less than Deve Gowda himself. But Somanna was not allowed to proceed beyond a point and he later joined the Congress.

So I am left wondering what will be the net result of this latest split. Will JD(S) remain as it is or will they loose hands down. Only time can tell.

Jeff Dunham - Achmed - Martwy Terrorysta (#6) POLSKIE NAPISY

2007-11-25T20:38:00.001+05:30

Well here is a hilarious video.... I was ROFLing all the way

Brett Lee comes to Bollywood

2007-11-25T17:21:00.000+05:30

Here is another Indophile. He cant seem to have enough of India, even though he is an Aussie. After cutting an Album with Asha Bhonsle, Brett Lee has taken the next logical step and has signed on for a bollywood movie. He will be shooting for the movie next year for a day and will be playing a cameo. So here is to Brett Lee and his Bollywood debut :). Btw the movie will be called Victory. So will Bret Lee be the victor in Victory ?

Related Links

Bret Lee to make guest appearance in Bollywood Movie

Sachin Tendulkar's another record

2007-11-25T17:12:00.000+05:30

I remember posting here that whatever Sachin Tendulkar does becomes a record. Well, here is one more record to his credit. He is now the second highest run maker in the history of Test Cricket. He bypassed Alan Border who had scored 11174 runs today. He is now behind Brian Lara who holds the record for the highest runs scored in test cricket i.e 11,953. With Sachin still scoring runs by the dozens, expect him to break a few more records before he decides to hangup his bat.

Sooner or later Sachin will create another record, a record for breaking all records in Cricket :p

Cheers to Sachin Tendulkar!!!

Related Links

Tendulkar is second highest run getter in Test Cricket

Here is why I love Sushmita Sen

2007-11-24T07:04:00.000+05:30

Call her whatever, but she does her own thing. Unlike a lot of Bollywood stars who pay lip service to a lot of causes, Sushmita is one who goes the whole yard in doing what she wants to. She has done it again. One of her staff turned HIV positive and later passed away. She not only went and managed his Funeral , but is now taking care of the staffer's wife who is also HIV positive and also his Children. Thankfully the Children have not tested positive. Now the question is how many Bollywood stars will go to this length despite their professed commitment to various causes. May Sushmita's tribe increase . Here is a complete text of the incident

Trust Sushmita Sen to do the unexpected - the actress has taken up the responsibility of the upkeep of her deceased staffer's HIV positive wife and two sons.

"The one good thing that came out of this whole experience was my rapport with my former staff Ashutosh (name changed) and his wife Namrata (name changed) and their two sons. I'm full of admiration for this woman of 29. She's younger and far less urbane than me, but her wisdom and her acumen in the face of such imminent tragedy just makes me feel so small," Sushmita told IANS.

Thankfully, both the staffer's children have tested negative.

"But the lady is in an advanced stage of being HIV positive. I'm getting her the best treatment possible. Perhaps with the treatment she'll live five-seven years. But her spirit is unbroken."

When you express admiration for her, the actress rebuffs it.

She said: "On the contrary she's helping my conscience to get lighter, I feel guilty that I knew nothing about Ashutosh's illness. He was too scared to tell me. Namrata was warned no one should know about his condition, least of all me. He thought I'd be very upset by the nature of his illness.

"He came to meet me shortly before he died. He looked very ill. I thought he had jaundice. He asked me for financial help. I knew there was something seriously wrong. I tried to get in touch with his wife, but couldn't. The next thing I knew was Ashutosh was in a coma."

However, Sushmita did get to speak to Ashutosh once before he died.

"He got out of his coma long enough to speak to me once on the cell phone. He heard me, and he cried and 24 hours later he died. The next day I flew in from Goa to do his last rites."

The wife and the children had to be tested for AIDS. It was one of the most horrific periods of Sushmita's life.

"I not only had to deal with the death of my staff, I also had to break the news of his wife's illness to her at the cremation itself. This entire harrowing incident was so unexpected."

Today the dead man's wife and children are under Sushmita's care.

"It's hard to keep her free from infections. I'm doing my best to keep her intact. Today, I'm an expert on HIV positive," said Sushmita who participated in an AIDS awareness programme with Hollywood actress Ashley Judd early this year.

On a brighter note, she said, "A look at my daughter's delight as she watches 'Pocahontas' and I regain my spirit. God bless Walt Disney."

Apart from her social work, the actress is currently caught up in the pre-production work of
her period film "Jhansi Ki Rani". She is not only playing the title role in the film but also producing it. Apart from that she will be seen with Shah Rukh Khan once again in "Dulha Mil
Gaya".

Related Links

Sushmita does her best for Staffer's Family

Jinxed Cities for those in Power

2007-11-23T12:12:00.000+05:30

Do you know what is common between Chamarajanagar in Karnataka and Noida in Uttar Pradesh ? The answer is both cities are considered as a jinx for those in power especially Chief Ministers. No Chief Minister did visit Noida since 1988, similarly no CM did visit Chamarajnagar since a very long time. All for the fear of losing power. It happened again and again in both Noida as well as Chamarajanagar. CM's visited those places and promptly lost power in no time. To try and break the Jinx, Mayawati did visit Noida recently to visit a wedding in the family of her right hand man Satish Chandra Mishra. HD Kumaraswamy also did visit Chamarajanagar recently. He anyway was due to transfer power over to BJP, which he dint and BJP promptly pulled the plug. So you cannot classify if he has really broken the Chamarajanagar Jinx or not .

Related Links

Mayawati Breaks jinx, visits Noida
I have broken the jinx
Junk the jinx is the cry from Chamarajanagar

Bara Brost- Swimmers go topless in Sweden

2007-11-22T23:13:00.001+05:30

A group of Women in Sweden have decided to go on a topless spree while swimming. You want to know why ? They have decided to protest the gender discrimination in swim wear :). The group calls themselves Bara Brost or Bare Breasts. They want a debate to be started about how women's bodies are sexualised. If men can swim bare chested why cannot the women folk do the same.

Frankly I thought swim wear was designed to bring out the beauty in a women's contour's . I would say most Men would have no problem with Women going topless either on beaches or anywhere else. All said and done "What One man can do, a woman can do " .

Related Link
Topless Swimmers make waves in Sweden

Manifesto of Bara Brost and Pictures of people protesting bare chested

Follow up post on my blog

Robert Vadra is not a security risk, but out Generals are a security risk at the airport

2007-11-22T09:30:00.000+05:30

In a startling revelation, it has been disclosed that Robert Vadra is not even frisked at the civilian airports, but our Service Chiefs from the three services are still frisked and searched before they can fly. Is this a case of sycophancy on the part of Congress or is it the way our Government treats the men on the Borders. But the moot point is why the hell should Robert Vadra be on the non-frisk list ? Is he a VIP only because he is married into the so called first family i.e for being Sonia Gandhi's Son in Law. What a shame !!!

Related Links

Vadra is not friske but Top Generals are

Now a defnition for a Hindu

2007-11-21T16:20:00.001+05:30

All along we thought Hinduism was a way of life and one who follows it was a Hindu. There was no clear cut definition of who a Hindu was and who wasn't a Hindu. Now a school in England has come up with a definition of who a Hindu is,

"Looked after children from Hindu families, 10 nominations by Bhaktivedanta Manor of practising Hindu families, children from practising Hindu families, children from Hindu families who are broadly following the tenets of Hinduism."

The policy defines 'practising Hindus' as those who perform daily prayer and deity worship either at a temple or at home, and accept and follow Vedic scriptures, in particular the Bhagavad Gita. They must also be involved in at least weekly temple-related voluntary work, attend temple programmes at least fortnightly and abstain from meat (including fish and eggs), alcohol, smoking and drugs.

According to the policy, 'broadly following' the tenets of Hinduism are defined as: at least monthly visits to the temple, attendance of key festival programmes (Diwali, Janmashtami and Ramnavami) at a local temple, following a vegetarian diet and avoidance of intoxication."

So now, how many of us would really qualify to be a Hindu then ? If we dont, then what do we call ourselves ?

Related Links

Who is a Hindu ? UK school lists out the qualities

Nataka in Karnataka: Drama in Karnataka: An interesting read

2007-11-21T12:37:00.000+05:30

This is an interesting blog entry by DP Satish. An intersting read on the Gowda Family and its good luck.

Nataka in Karnataka - When you Gowda go

Veteran journalist from Mysore K B Ganapathy wonders in his English daily " Star of Mysore, "Sometimes I wonder if H.D. Deve Gowda's success, despite an unstable weak political party, is due to the grace of Gods and Goddesses which he worships with vermilion and sandal paste smeared prominently on his broad forehead or on the bridge of his big nose ".

The moment Congress led Central government decided to end the yearlong trauma of Five and a half crore people in Karnataka by dissolving the Assembly, I heaved a great sigh of relief. At times I was ashamed of myself for being a Kannadiga (a practising Kannadiga!). The Nataka in Karnataka scripted and staged by ' humble ' farmer H D Deve Gowda and company is undoubtedly a blot on the whole state of Karnataka, which has a vast talent pool, resources, eternally vigilant civil society and cultured people. I agree that the politicians don't represent the general public. Their acts and decisions don't represent the majority people. The way Gowda and his ' son ' parivar held the entire state to ransom for the last 41 months have made me to believe that some ' evil ' powers above us indeed blessed them to torment common people. Perhaps they wanted to have some fun by bestowing power on the people like Gowda! The people who voted for him out of sympathy (S M Krishna's Bangalore centric rule also largely helped Gowda to hold keys to power) in 2004 Assembly polls were caught in the crossfire between these political ' militants '(JD(S), BJP & Congress)of Karnataka.

I was flooded with SMSes from across the globe abusing Gowda and sons (some call them ' sins'!) sent by the people of Karnataka. The message was almost the same.

' Kick Gowda out and save Karnataka '. Some of the SMSes were in atrocious, horrid, nasty, nauseating language. It shows the level of anger among the people against the ' first family ' of state politics.

This unsophisticated, so called peasant family which suffers from a siege mentality committed series of political and moral crimes just to retain its supremacy over the state in the last 41 months. Till last October, the world seemed to be divided diametrically between two kinds of people: those who love H.D. Deve Gowda, and those who love to loathe H.D. Deve Gowda. I doubt that we still have the people those who love Gowda! Even his staunch followers from his own stronghold are now distancing themselves from ' son of the soil '.

Whether it is sleeping with Ramakrishna Hegde just to stab in the back to achieve his chief mnisterial and prime ministerial ambitions, filing CBI cases against Lalu Yadav (he now describes him as a black cobra!), ditching Sitaram Kesri, hassling many industrialists and IT czar N R Narayanamurthy on various issues, sleeping with the BJP to install his son H.D. Kumaraswamy as chief minister and ' betraying ' them twice in just 50 days, or cosying up to the Congress to become ' secular ' once again, always putting his mega family above state and its people, Deve Gowda proved beyond all doubts that he is the one and only who can stoop to such a low level in public life.

I would not be wrong, if I say that Gowda is somebody for whom only the end matters, the means be damned? Unfortunately, the ' ring master ' is now at the receiving end. Future looks bleak for both him and his party.

The BJP, which departed before its arrival in the south, is also equally responsible for the political mess and the new low in Indian politics. Their 7 day government imposed on the people has severely dented the image and credibility of saffron brigade. People are convinced that there is no difference between all other political parties and party with a ' difference '.

As I have said in the beginning Gowda and his sons always attribute their success to Gowda's strong star powers and gods. It is now time for the gods and goddesses to disown Gowda and Co in the larger interest of the state! Hope the prayers of the people will fall on the ears of almighty!

Link to the blog entry

Presidents Rule in Karnataka

2007-11-20T19:26:00.000+05:30

As expected the Centre has imposed President's rule in Karnataka. Its the second time in a month that President's rule has been imposed in Karnataka. This follows after the JD(S) decided to vote against the BJP's confidence motion. Yeddyurappa had no option but to submit his resignation and which he did promptly. Sooner or later dissolution of the assembly is in order and fresh elections will be held in the due course of time.

Related Links

Karnataka brought under President's rule
Cabinet OK's President's Rule in Karnataka

JD(S) stabs BJP in the back

2007-11-19T20:28:00.000+05:30

Trust Deve Gowda to stab anyone in the back for his own gains. He did it yet again to further his Son's and Family's interests both Business as well as political. He thus ensured that he will probably continue to call the shots in any further political developments in Karnataka. His politcal machinations have ensured that JD(S) has enjoyed power for 40 plus months without even having the required numbers in the Legislative assembly. He called the shots when Dharam Singh ruled the state and later ensured his son Kumaraswamy had a smooth ride while sharing power with the BJP. When it came to handing over power to BJP he developed cold feet giving all sorts of reasons.
A master at political survival, he has stabbed enough people in the back for his selfish gains.

First he ensured that the power was never transferred to the BJP in the true sense. Though it was done, it was more of a mockery of the trust that BJP placed on JD(S). All sorts of conditions were placed before BJP. A 12 point MOU was required to be signed by the BJP, which the party flatly refused.

Now it is rumoured that JD(S) has approached the Congress to stake claim for power. I really wonder how Congress could trust a dude like Deve Gowda who has no qualms about ditching everybody when it comes to his survival.

It is equally rumoured that it was on the advise of his personal astrologer that Deve Gowda engineering all the politcal drama. According to the Astrologer ,Deve Gowda's son Kumaraswamy will win the elections if they are held now. Guided by this prediction, Gowda is trying all sorts of machinations so that elections are held at the earliest.

As if to add credence to this theory comes the prediction from the Swamiji of Kodi Mutt who has gone on to predict that Kumaraswamy will win the elections if they are held now. Kodi Mutt infact has a history predicting political events correctly. This includes advising Indira Gandhi to choose the hand as a symbol to advising her to contest elections from Chikamangalur post- emergency to her and her Son's death, this Mutt has predicted it all. Ever wondering how they predict the same ? Well, its all written in the palm leaves in the mutt. They have time and again proved to be very accurate. I shall write about Kodi Mutt on a later date.

But I am left wondering , isnt Deve Gowda playing the game of brinkmanship based on the advise of his astrologers ? Isnt he trying to shape events based around the predictions of his astrologers ? How correct is it to break the trust of an ally just because an astrologer predicts the winner will be Kumaraswamy ? It is a sad scene that public life has degenerated to such levels, from where there is no return.

Related Links

Worst betrayal of my life: Yeddyurappa
Yeddyurappa resigns as Karnataka CM
What next ?? Gowda said to be at Congress doors

CAT in bag of a 56 year old

2007-11-19T11:29:00.000+05:30

CAT- Common Admission Test, the test that is held for admissions to the IIM's has been favourite hunting ground for this 56 year old. He has been appearing for the CAT exams for the sheer thrill of solving the problems in the paper, which kinda gives him a big high. Its more of solving the brain teasers that interests him than anything else. He has managed to clear it 3 times until now. Pankaj Srivastava has this unique distinction of appearing at CAT for a mental orgasm. He is in fact a Chartered Accountant by profession.

Related Links

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2551279.cms

Now its Smishing on the Mobiles

2007-11-19T11:15:00.000+05:30

Until now we were all worried about the Phishing that has been happening through emails. Now its the turn of Smishing. Cheating on SMS's. Wondering how ? You get an sms saying that you should visit a particular site to cancel a particular subscription , which you obviously haven asked for. Once you logon , you will be asked for various personal details and credit card info etc...

As new ways of communication's have entered into the consumer's life , so have the crooks smartened their approach. In most cases it is a new form of Social Engineering, that essentially makes victims of perfectly innocent victims. Another one scam to wisen up.

Related Links
http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/nov/19sms.htm

Left has nothing left in it!

2007-11-17T08:19:00.000+05:30

The Left gave in and has allowed the Government to begin talks with IAEA. After so much of hungama, this is a rather tame end to the whole issue. Left seems to blow hot and cold on this issue and I really wonder what the real reason could be for their climb down. Was it Nandigram that tied their hands or was it the fact that Russia refused to build the rest of the Nuclear Reactors that it was supposed to build in Tamil Nadu. Whatever the reason, the change is welcome.

Related links
http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/nov/16ndeal4.htm

Stop now, thank you very much !! The Spice Girls are back

2007-11-16T22:54:00.000+05:30

The Spice Girls are back in business and will be performing their act soon...

They prove Ronen right- they let him off!!!

2007-11-16T22:45:00.000+05:30

Our Parliamentarians have proved Ronen right. They have let off the Indian Ambassador to the USA , with just a word of caution. The Parliamentary Panel has taken a lenient view of the remarks made by Ronen in an interview. In his interview he had called the opponents of the Nuclear Deal as a headless chicken.

The interview can be read here

http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/aug/20inter.htm

The news about Ronen being let off with a word of caution is here
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Ronen_Sen_let_off_with_a_word_of_caution/articleshow/2546728.cms

Sachin Tendulakar's missed centuries

2007-11-16T22:39:00.000+05:30

Anything that Sachin Tendulakar does is a record. So much so when he gets out in the nervous nineties, even that is record. He holds the record for getting out the highest number of times in the nineties. Following him is Andy Flower and Nathan Astle. Strange , if Sachin were to convert all his nervous nineties into hundreds, his total number of hundreds itself would exceed a hundred, tests and ODI's put together. But for someone who has been playing for sooo long in international cricket, it isnt surprising that he will break every record possible.

Related Links

http://cricket.indiatimes.com/Sachin_Tendulkars_tale_of_missed_centuries/articleshow/2545879.cms

Stars without make up

2007-11-14T14:25:00.000+05:30

Wondering how all your stars look in real life. In reel life what you see is a powdered, pampered version of the real thing. But the real things will want you just the reel thing. There are as human as you and me, as ugly as you and I can be.... Here is a link I found, that shows all the stars without makeup .. You can find Kareena looking nothing like what she is on screen, Bipasha looking uglier than ever, JLo looking like a Spanish maid, Britney Spears looking like someone on dope and food stamps etc.... Check out the link below...

http://movies.indiatimes.com/quickies/2501407.cms

Here comes number interoperability

2007-11-14T09:13:00.000+05:30

Ah, here comes the mobile number interoperability!! If you are tired of the service levels of your mobile operator, but don't want to switch because too many people have your existing number, then here is hope. The Govt of India has announced number interoperability in 4 major cities i.e Delhi,Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkatta. That would mean you can switch your operator , but can retain the same number. Now isnt that good news for a lot of us frustrated with service levels.

Related Links
http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/nov/14coai.htm

Family Fortunes

2007-11-11T10:26:00.001+05:30

Here is an interesting article on how Family businesses in India, have suffered over the decades because of infighting within the family. Almost every business family seems to have had internal conflicts that have hampered their growth. The only exception seems to be the Ambani brothers, who have since rocked the charts. After the split, it looks like they unlocked a lot of value from a lot of group companies which were being run as subsidiaries. Here is the article from Economic Times

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2532466.cms

When shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain? When the hurlyburly’s done, When the battle’s lost and won
---Macbeth (Act I, Scene I)

NEW DELHI: Their saga is as intriguing as a Shakespearean play. The characters equally fascinating, each with a distinct style. Cut to modern times, the kings and the lords have made their exit and today it’s the business tycoons who hold the power to taper the economies of nations or make markets swirl and dance on their boardroom decisions.

They belong to the brave new world and like the kings of yesteryears the world belongs to them. But like the bard’s characters, they too are prone to nemesis — treason and plotting among family members to take over an empire, sometimes leading to a split.

Often, in boardrooms, office cubicles, lounges you may have found yourself debating, discussing and perhaps relating your fortunes with their success. Wondering about the cash-laden barrels stored in their vaults, and what if they were together, united.

SundayET brings to you some families, who if they had not parted ways, today would have been a larger force to reckon with globally. It’s another thing that most analysts say that they have grown only because they have parted. In calculating the net worth of families, we have only taken into account the listed companies.

The first case in point is obviously the Ambani family that easily could have been the world’s richest family. If you sum up the wealth of the Ambani brothers (Rs 419949.50 crore) on current market prices, they are almost double the size of the wealth owned by Bill Gates (Rs 220052 crore).

When the feud was settled between the two brothers in 2005, it left a big scar on the brand Reliance and subsequently group’s performance in the stock markets dipped for a while. Both the brothers today are back on the forefront of the bourses and doing fabulously well.

The Jamanlal Bajaj family case is similar where the entry of a new generation led to ideological differences and dispute reached the Company Law Board. Today if we combine the wealth of Jamanlal Bajaj family, a whopping Rs 9,655.60 crore is what their worth is. The family has stakes in Bajaj Hindustan, Bajaj Electricals, Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Auto Fin, Maharashtra Scooters.

The same stands true for the Birlas’, who as of now are fighting together to claim a stake in the disputed Priyamvada Birla’s Rs 5,000-crore estate, which includes the flagship Birla Corporation and several other companies of the M P Birla group. If the Birla empire, was today united, they could have been worth Rs 53056.94 crore.

Take the Mittal family too. If not for the split in ‘94 between Lakshmi Mittal & Vinod and Pramod Mittals, L N Mittal would have not chased success on international shores. Today, L N Mittal stands proud on the fourth pedestal of Forbes’ richest. The split in the family, which arose due to differences between the father and brothers (Vinod and Pramod), forced him to take over the international wing of Mittal steel business.

Today, if the family had been together, they would have amassed 127929.75 crore, almost all of it belonging to the better known L N Mittal. Would they’ve ruled the world? Well, there’s no answer and though the assumption is hypothetical, the implications surely cannot be discounted.

Another business family, the Mumbai-based Piramals decided to walk separate paths recently, with a large part of the chunk going to chairman Ajay Piramal and a relatively smaller portion to his sister-in-law Urvi and her three sons.

Similarly, the DCM group, one of India’s leading industrial groups for many decades, lost a lot of its lustre in the late 80s, partly because of a family feud which resulted in the group being divided between various family members.

There are many other examples of business families in India — Mirchandani brothers (Mirc Electronics, owners of brand Onida), Modi family, Mafatlal family, Goenka family (RPG group), Raunaq Singh family (Apollo Tyres), Bhai Mohan Singh (Ranbaxy/Max) — where infighting hampered the performance of the businesses as a unit. Some of these battles are still being resolved by courts. Maybe the statistics on the Forbes list of richest people would have been vastly different and there would have been more Indian business families making their presence felt. Well who knows...

Ashwin Parekh, national leader (financial services), Ernst and Young India feels that though no one can say for sure whether they would have performed exceedingly well, but being together certainly could have given them an added advantage.

“In each of these families, there have been individual leaders, and they with their leadership qualities re-defined the performance of the companies. If they would have been together, they could have exploited each others talent and done exceedingly well. But it could also have been the other way around as the individualistic differences could have bogged them down,” he says.

A renowned international consultant cites the example of companies in the West such as Dow Jones. “If you are a large group, it definitely helps as the global markets see what your market worth is. Also, the financial institutions will back you readily,” he says. Agrees, Alpesh Shah, director, Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He feels that if these families were united, they could have leveraged their financial strength and made a bigger impact on the global scenario.

But he believes that the break-up was also beneficial. “From the society’s point of view, it has helped to create more jobs, more business and more money flowing into the economy. For instance, Anil Ambani’s business is today growing at a fast pace, which may not have been the case if the two brothers were together. He is trying to prove a point to Mukesh Ambani that he is equally capable of doing what he can or may be better. That may not have been the case had he been in the larger umbrella of the Reliance group,” he says.

Sunil Sinha, senior economist and head, Crisil feels that if a family-owned conglomerate can maintain its professionalism in the long run, they are in a better position to dictate the market dynamics. “But if there is no pre-planned hierarchical structure, such disputes are bound to happen because once the patriarch dies the new generation wants to steer the ship on their own.

All individuals are looking for personal success as well and this stands true not only for business families but also for a common man,” he says. The debate may rage on for long, but the question which you may still ask and ponder upon is — what if they were together?

Super Chor- This Thief doesnt work on weekends :))

2007-11-11T10:17:00.000+05:30

Found an interesting article on Indiatimes.com. This is about a Chor who did not work on weekends. His modus operandi was very simple. He worked only on weekdays, between 9-5 pm and targeted homes of working couples and those houses that were locked during the day. A dapper looking chap, he sometimes even had posed as a business executive doing a survey, but the survey was to identify targets. He had a taste for the good things of life, like expensive watches, homes, cars and as usual jewelery. His monthly income is said to be in the range of 2- 2.5 lakhs per month. Well, whoever said that crime doesnt pay, should eat his words..

Here is the link

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2532277.cms

Subhash Kumar the new ‘superchor’ in the city (TOI Photo)

NEW DELHI: A new ‘superchor’ allegedly involved in a staggering 550 cases of theft and burglary over the past seven years in south Delhi has been nabbed by the police.

Police say Subhash Kumar, whose exploits rival the original superchor Bunty, was a meticulous planner who would often masquerade as a business executive and survey the colonies before carrying out an operation. And that he only picked up expensive items such as jewellery, laptops and wristwatches. He had three girlfriends.

The 30-year-old Subhash was a day burglar who operated between 10 am and 5 pm, primarily targeting the homes of working couples and government employees whose houses were locked during the day. Police say he never committed a crime on weekends or during gazetted holidays.

Subhash had allegedly amassed a huge fortune — he built two houses, one in Sangam Vihar and another in UP’s Hathras town. Police claimed to have seized jewellery worth Rs 15 lakh from him; including one kilogram of gold and diamond jewellery and about half a kilo of silver ornaments. A car, seven laptops, eight cellphones were also recovered. If cops are to be believed, his monthly income was Rs 2-2.5 lakh.

Hot on his trail, police received information that on November 4, Subhash would come to Press Enclave. A team of special staff of the South Delhi police apprehended him. He was allegedly carrying a kilogram of charas.

Another Bamiyan style operation by Taliban in Pakistan

2007-11-11T10:07:00.000+05:30

The Taliban has carried out a Bamiyan style operation inside Pakistan, by destroying a historic 40 metre statue of Buddha in the Swat Valley. There have destroyed the feet, head and shoulder of the statue and have threatened to reduce it to rubble. Pervez Musharaff's writ doesnt run any more in the Swat Valley as the valley has been overrun by bunch of muslim fundamentalists led by Mullah Fazlullah , who is better known as Mullah Radio , because of the FM Radio he runs. Indiatimes.com has run the following article on the destruction of the Buddha statue

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2532282.cms
ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI: In a re-run of the horrible vandalism that destroyed the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan, Pakistani Taliban rebels have carried out a second attack on a historic 40-metre tall Buddha statue in the Swat valley, destroying the head, shoulders and feet. The rebels have threatened a third and final attack on the statue to reduce it to rubble.

The world had shuddered with horror at the blasting of the Bamiyan statues. Yet another such act is happening in Pakistan and the Musharraf regime seems helpless to prevent it. Said president of Asia Society Vishakha N Desai: "Political and cultural leaders from around the world had condemned the destruction of the Bamiyan statues in 2001, yet in Pakistan the same disaster is being repeated."

The problem is that the writ of Pervez Musharraf no longer runs in Swat, a picturesque tourist centre 200 km northwest of Islamabad, that has now been overrun by Islamic fundamentalists led by Mullah Fazlullah, known as ‘Mullah Radio’ because of the FM propaganda radio station that he runs.

The radio station, apart from giving orders to people, justifies acts that fly against civilised norms as understood in the 21st century, like the destruction of the statues, closure of girls schools, destruction of Indian music shops and beating up of barbers who shave beards.

Swat, falling in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, has a priceless Buddhist heritage. The Harmarajika stupa in Taxila and Butkarha stupa in Swat were among the earliest stupas of Gandhara — an ancient kingdom consisting of modern-day Peshawar, Taxila, Swat and, according to some historians, parts of Kashmir.

These stupas had been erected on the orders of Emperor Ashoka and contained real relics of the Buddha. The Gandhara school is credited with the first representation of the Buddha in human form.

Adriana Propser of Asia Society in New York, said: "The art of the Gandhara area shows the impact of Hellenistic and Roman influence through the conquests of Alexander. Any destruction of archeological and artistic sites here are an enormous loss for mankind, especially for those who treasure historical records and rare works of art."

ICICI Bank fined 50 lakh

2007-11-10T17:57:00.000+05:30

ICICI Bank has been fined Rs.50 lakhs for harassing a customer by employing goons . The goons not only thrashed the Customer but also seized the car. Rediff.com carried this story on Nov 6th.

Here is the link to the actual story
http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/nov/05icici.htm

In a significant judgment, the Commission deprecated the "audacity and impunity" with which banks have been effecting forcible possession of vehicles and ordered ICICI Bank to pay Rs 50 lakh to a consumer, who was mercilessly beaten by the recovery agents while they snatched a loaned car from him.

The Delhi Consumer Commission fined ICICI Bank [Get Quote] a whopping fine of Rs 50 lakh for employing "goons" to recover a loan and deplored the practice of banks intimidating consumers to pay installments.

"No civilised society governed by rule of law can brook such kind of conduct," the Commission's president Justice J D Kapoor said, adding the violent methods adopted by the recovery agents were serious violation of "human rights".

Holding the ICICI Bank guilty of "unfair trade practice," the Commission termed such miscreants as "yahoos" and said they are boorish and a brutal lout, who care a fig for legal and judicial authorities, including the Supreme Court. While taking to task the leading bank, it vented its anger on ICICI for flouting the apex court's direction that restrained all the financial institutions from employing musclemen to recover a loan amount or possession of a vehicle.

The Commission, also comprising member Rumnita Mittal, issued notices to the collection manager of ICICI Bank and the CEO of the recovery agency, seeking their explanations over blatant violation of the direction of the highest court of the nation.

Its strong worded order came recently while hearing a complaint by Tapan Bose, whose loaned car was taken away by some recovery agents after beating up his friend's son with iron rods on January 8, leading to serious injuries on his skull and other parts of the body.

ICICI, however, refused to own up the act contending the agents were employed separately by the recovery agency and it could not held culpable for any such act as it had asked the agency to conduct themselves in accordance with the law.

Quashing the bank's argument, the Commission said, "For every illegal acts of the collection agency, the bank is directly liable," adding the consumer had no concern with an internal agreement between the bank and any other agency and they could not be made to pay the price for it.

It termed the musclemen as "robbers and hardened criminals," who beat up a consumer for recovering a few thousand rupees, snatching the key of a vehicle and take it away little realising the urgency or emergency of the person.

"They insult everyone, humiliate the inmates and create scenes. They have driven people to commit suicide for a few thousands," the Commission said in a release, maintaining there was a civil legal remedy for recovering loans and employing goons for this was beyond the parameters of the law.

From Russia with Love!!!

2007-10-15T16:03:00.000+05:30

If you ever thought this was the title of the James Bond movie, think twice. Here I am talking of the great bride scam from Russia.

It all started with this spam mail for me. It went on something like this “I am a Russian girl from Russia with name as Darya and am looking for a man from outside Russia and do send me a line if you are interested”

So I did reply “Here is my line…. Send your pics”

Then came a long reply to me from this Girl in Russia

Hi my new friend
Im glad to see that you have decided to reply,I see it is very short letter.
It is all right because you are astonished to get my letter.
I want you to know that I have only good intentions and I have not any secrets.
The thing is that I will work in your country for three months or so and
I would like to meet a nice man to fall in love or just be closest friends.
I don't want to live in Russia because I have not any chances here,
it is hardly possible to explain from first time but I want you to know my plans.
I will work in any shop, bar or restaurant the agency that i am going through will suggest me some locations.
It will be my choice in the end as to what option to go for.
So I will have a simple work till I improve my English. And I can choose any
town of your area,agency will only help me to get a visa and all travel documents + some suggested placed to work in.My best friend last year met the man from the USA when she worked there for three months, too.
She had two jobs. From morning till 4 pm she worked in amusement park and after it she worked as a waitress in some bar till midnight.She was very tired of course but made very good money there.
It is special programm for young people who wants to work abroad and I think it is the right way for me ,
I am lost here,and I think that I look pretty enough to find a better place .I want to repeat the same way,it is
only my chance to meet a nice man.I want to work in USA or in Europe or any nice country. I am full of plans and different dreams and I want to share my life with good man because I'm also full of love and tenderness,I know that I am not so beautiful like Hollywood Princess but I do hope to meet my Prince and
I am sure he will be not be disappoined to meet me in the real life! This is why I am going to go through the same way. Well,I will close this letter and I do hope to get your reply.I will leave russia in two weeks or so (I can't tell you everything exactly right now) and I would like tobe sure that I have the man who waits for me there. I will work all day and I want to find a man to spend all free time together to get to know each other better.if you have any interest to meet me I will be more than happy to meet you too. I will tell you all details about me and my life if you like my pictures and want to meet me! please send picture of you too!!!
I write to you with my new mailbox darus@greatmailservices.biz, please write letters now only on this mailbox.
I will wait your next letter.
Kiss you , Darya (this is my name)!

And this mail had pictures of her…. She wasn’t a Siren exactly , but worth a look..

I dint reply back and decided to wait. Soon, came another reply from her... here it goes

Hello my dear (what is your real name?), thank you for your answer!
At first I think I have to say that I am new in internet and I have only good intentions.
you should know that I am not very good writer in english, please be patient to read my
messages and see many mistakes. to be fair I don't know what you want to know about me,in principle I am usual girl.I think I should tell you about me, my interests,tastes and hobbies.I think I will tell you about things I want to know about you and you will know my future questions. I am 25 years old,my birthday is December,25,1981. I so much don't want to get older ,when I can see old women I am getting crazy to think that it is my future .I do all the best to keep my youth and I keep my body well.In spite of all difficultes here I am trying to be in good condition and I do a lot of exercises to be in good shape! I am about 172 cm tall (5.6) and my weight is about 56 kg. I've been told I look well enough , and I think that all women have own beaty. I have never been married and I don`t have children. I have one youngest sisters and it is great problem for us because we have only two rooms flat.you can't imagine what does it mean to be born in small town in Russia,there are not any chances to live well,to get a good job.All young people leave towns to search great luck in big cities but nobody waits for them there. I want to leave Russia,I know it sounds ugly but I know that I will be lost here like many young girls before me. It is not place to grow children and have stable future.I want to meet my right man . I think in future I can work as fitness trainer I have a certificate. My mother is my great problem too,she has a great dream to see me married and she wants to make me happy but I think it is only my business I am not a little child. She tells me every day
that I should get married very soon... To be fair I am not sure I am able to explain all in first message I want to say so much! I just want you to know that I am not afraid to work,I am fairly goal oriented and I am sure you will be not disappoined to meet me in real life.I am going to spend three months abroad to work in any good place,agency promises to help me because it is only the way I can leave Russia.I will have all documents to travel in a few days and i will travel to St Petersburg then,from St Petersburg I will travel to you and they ask me about name of the city i am going to work,if you don't mind to meet me please tell me the name of your city and nearest international airport! I will book my flight from St Petersburg!
I think it would be so great to meet my love and stay there forever.I know that it is not so easy like I think but I think it is possible that I meat my real love. I want to love and to be loved I want to build our own happiness,only me and my man there. I don't smoke,I tried to smoke when I was younger. I may have a glass of red dry vine,sometimes it helps to relax. I try to take care of my body and face. I know it is all I have. My soul may have any itnterst for you later, I thinkso.I am not a little girl and I know that at first almost all men look at body ,legs and face.God created males such persons. Well,I think I am lost in my letter,I am not sure you
understand my goals,please feel free to ask. I live in Russia,town Osinniki, Voevodina streetNovokuznetsk. My town is rather far from St Petersburg. . I want you to reply if you understand my mind,my intentions,my soul,if not please reply too, I will continue my searching. Well, I will close this letter,I think you are tired to read
it.and If you think that I should write shorter letters please tell me. I write from internet cafe in
Novokuznetsk because there are not cafes and possibility to use internet in my small town,we have 4 digital phone number and we can't call abroad.Even to call in any big town here in Russia I have to order the call in advance.and I would like to say please don't worry if I keep silence sometimes I have no time to travel ,it is about 25 minutes by bus from my town till Novokuznetsk Please tell me more about you,your tastes,likes and dislikes .also I have a few impotant questions do you like strong drinks too much?can you be very drunk?very ofthen?can you be rude with women?
Well,I have to stop or I will write without ending.Kiss you !see you later. In my next e-mail I will write you more things about myself and
more details about my trip and work. I will miss you, you Darya
Forgive, that did not write these days.
My mail box has broken. The instructor has helped me to adjust new.
Write please on it: darus@greatmailservices.biz 49,flat 17 ,it is near big city

It had a few more pictures…….

I replied back to her

I stay in a country called Utopia , with capital as Timbuktu , that is where the international airport is. I am tired of working in large cities like Timbuktu and wish to move to a small town like the one you stay in Russia. Just a thought, how about me moving there ?? I can literally buy a huge building where we can stay without any worries about money !!!! With my contacts in the Russian Embassy, I can easily get the required docs!!! C you soon in your city !!!

I prefer someone from my own country!! I am a Srilankan !!!

Then came another looooooooooooong reply and another set of pictures. ..

Hello my dear !!!!!!
I am so glad to see your letter again,I think I am a lucky girl to meet such man and I will do my best to meet you in real life! you know I can work in any city of your area because it is free choice and agency only helps me to get only travel documents and ticket, and I do hope that we will like each other and now I have the destination. The agency will also suggest some places to work in. I do hope I have met my right man!you know I have told you before one
of my friend worked abroad last year and have met right man,now they live there and they are going to marry. by the way now they are arranging the trip to Russia,(he wants to meet her parents and friends) I think if I feel that you are my dream and you have the same feelings we could think about our future together. if not I will just work and return back when the time to travel back. you know I am new here and I am afraid to make any mistake.
I have one great lack,I am very impatient sometimes I can act without thinking.
Sometimes I think that my dream is getting for real and it is so bad to be disappointed later.
I want you to know all small things about me because it shouldn't be any misunderstandings between us. I want you to know that I am not angel and sometimes I can show my character.And I don't wait that you to be angel too, I just want to meet a kind man .
I am very kind and I can forgive almost all I can't forgive if my man sleep with different woman, I don't know many nessesary words in english.
I hope you can read between lines. A little more about myself!
my favorite activity is fitness. I wanted to be as fitness trainer but
I finished The Novokuznetsk State Univercity, trainers faculty as fitness
trainer but I don't work on my profession because there are no good fintess clubs in my city,
I used to sit at home and to do all housework,helping my mom. I would like to have good job,
I may work dancing teacher, or trainer of fitness,you know I have a certificate. I worked as a trainer a year ago . and I would like to do it again .you know how many more younger girls want to get this job too!Alot of competition here. I want to tell you about things I like:
I like to make barbecue and I so much want to have my own home with fireplace.
usually I make very tasty ones and in principle I like to cook and it is not problem for me to cook something tasty and I don't like to visit cafes and restaurants,
at first usually they can't cook weel(maybe only here) and second too high price.
I like warm weather. and my great dream is to live somewhere on tropical island. Also I want to tell you about my dislikes: I hate our long winters it seems to me they will never end. I hate lies and unfaithfulness. I hate evil people and politicans I think they like to play wars, I hate any ars.
What I like in a man: faithfulness, honesty. He has to be open- minded and open-hearted, also easy-going. and much more important he is kind,kindness makes our world!
Are you kind and gentle man ?????
I think my man should be kind ,it is great feeling after love,only kind person may be happy, all rude people are unhappy. or must be. A few questions yet, agency tells that I will have a room in nearest hotel near my future work but if we like each other may be is it possible to live together?I think we will enjoy life together. do you have your car?animals? I
can't drive and I do hope you give me a few lessons, to be fair I have so many plans .I will find out all travel details about my flight this week. I will leave my town today in a two hours and i think I will be not able to write to you today or so. When I am in St Petersburg I will send you short letter to let you know that I am all right and they tell that it takes about two days to
get all nesseary papers, please confirm your phone number and international airport, I want to be sure I have all your details and Please don't look at different girls. I am the best(joke). Well, I will close this letter I think I am bore today,and please feel free to ask. See you soon!I can't believe everything is for real. to be fair I am lost and my head is like any big station with a lot of voice!
KISS and LOVE Darya!

I dint reply , soon enough there came another mail with another set of pictures….this time in bikini’s

My honey ! it is me,can you believe I am in St Petersburg. I can't believe ,it was wonderful flight and they gave red vine in plane, wow,I have never tried such tasty one!!!!!
I went the bus up to the Subway from the airport .In Subway long went, it was so is delightful
I was in travel agency today, but my documents are not ready yet, it will be ready tomorrow.
I will go to travel agency again to get all info about my trip. And of course, when I will get it - I will send it to you! It is such great city and it takes a few hours to travel from one end to other.
I rented the flat for few days. People said to me some nice places in St Petersburg while he was
Such a great city it is. I have no words to explain. you can't imagine how great St Petersburglive here,a lot of cars,people , voice and pollution.Ugly traffic and people with crazy eyes. When I get off plane in airport St Petersburg policeman asked about passport and he looked at me like I am any enemy, I think all people here are a little crazy at terrorism.Life here in St Petersburg is expensive. I was going through some shops today
and it is much more expensive than in our town. Food and all the general things. It is the same country but different prices, what a great change. I think people living in St Petersburg are very cautious ,I think so. But I think that I have done my choice and to be fair I don't want to
live here,it is not the city of my dreams. you know I am not coward I am not afraid I know it is my chance to meet kind man .I do hope I am right. and I think you are too kind to make any bad things I feel it.
Well,I will close this letter ,please write as soon as possible!see
you soon! KISS . Great kiss from St Petersburg!!!!!!!!! Darya

And from then on there has been no reply from this Russian beauty until now… The Bride scam from Russia seems to be the most ingenious of all of them. After all this, what this Bride does is , send in a mail saying she is caught up with the Visa authorities and they have detained her and you should send so many thousand dollars so that she can be released and can fly gracefully into your arms. If you are nuts enough to send the money, thats what you will get... no bride, no russian babe, just a bank balance thats just gone down by a few notches. :p

Prasanna- The one man Orchestra

2007-10-15T12:11:00.000+05:30

Last sunday, I met someone who has the unique distinction of playing 6 instruments at one go. Not only does he play 6 instruments at one go, he also plays numerous other instruments. Here are a few, he plays with ease... Guitar, Harmonica or Mouth Organ as it is popularly known in India, Soprano, Saxophone, Keyboards, Accordian, Harmonium, Mandolin, Clarinet, Melodian etc....

Whew, thats a real long list of instruments. When most of us really would be happy to master just one instrument, he is someone who has dedicated himself to play and popularize these instruments. He has been featured in almost all the mainstream newspapers as well as the Kannada channels. He recently appeared on the extremely popular kannada show called "Ede Thumbi haduvenu" along with SP Balasubramanium as a judge.

The first thing I noticed as I walked into his house in Sahakarnagar was the number of instruments lying around and a large white board that serves as a timetable for his students.
From the timetable , you can easily make out that every evening he is busy teaching students various instruments. Saturday and Sunday are kinda choc-o-bloc.

To reduce this rush, Prasanna has now introduced a 6 month crash course, which he has structured in such a way, with the right amount of practice, a student will be able to master the instrument. A young boy sitting on the keyboards was playing the Kal ho naho tune fairly well and Prasanna informs that he has been coming to classes for the last one month only, i.e 4 classes only ... that is what is called speed !!!!

He has bagged numerous awards, citations and has performed in excess of 500 shows. He would welcome invites to perform in a weddings, company get -togethers and other functions.. Dont know his fees though. It would be prudent to call him and find out the fees for the program though. If you want to learn an instrument , buzz him at Phone : 91 080 65609587 Mobile : 092431 04505 or email him at prasanna_oneman_orch@yahoo.com .

Btw , here are a few pics I shot at his residence... Btw He also owns one of the largest collections of Harmonicas...

Here is a pic of Prasanna with a Saxophone

Car with Jharkand Number

2007-10-15T12:01:00.001+05:30

Spotted for the first time a car with a Jharkand number

Newest Salon for the gals !!!

2007-10-06T13:36:00.001+05:30

Found this new salon/ beauty parlour that has opened up in next road!!! Nice way of catching the eye though!!! Next to the that is the barber shop err....... the Salon, where I got to trim my hair or atleast whatever is left of it!!!!!

Car with a Novel Number

2007-10-06T13:32:00.000+05:30

Found a car with a novel number, just a 9 .... here it is

Barebones of a bike

2007-10-06T11:40:00.000+05:30

Here is how a 225 cc bike looks like, in its bare bones i.e its Chassis !!! Looks almost, like a bird!!!

Another Brick in the wall

2007-10-04T20:58:00.000+05:30

Today 2 majors and a couple of troopers passed away , while fighting militants in Jammu and Kashmir. Major KP Vinay and Major Dinesh Raghuraman were both killed in a fight with militants who were holed up near the popular health resort of Gulmarg. Both were serving under Rashtriya Rifles.

What is saddening is these 2 young men were just about to step into Holy matrimony and fatherhood respectively. Alas, both were killed in the same incident. This also brings out the sheer neglect that our politicos have on the issue of militancy, the callous attitude towards these brave men who dont care for their own lives while saving ours.. Time the Government woke up and handled militancy with the high handedness that is required.

Every death, of a brave Soldier is, another brick in the wall, of our nation's tomb!!!!

May the souls of these 2 brave men rest in peace. The sacrifice of these martyrs will never be forgotten!!!

A terrorist or protection from Pollution

2007-10-04T16:46:00.000+05:30

Hmm... the heights to which Girls go to protect themselves from pollution. Almost thought she was a terrorist!!!! Actually she looks like Kevin Bacon in Hollow Man..

An auto with a Chain

2007-10-04T16:40:00.000+05:30

Was walking back from Lunch today, when me and Mark spotted this auto which had its Steering handle chained !! Maybe to prevent someone stealing the auto or is it just plain guilt complex, for having stolen so much money from unwitting passengers!!!!

Pakistan in turmoil!!!

2007-09-10T12:04:00.000+05:30

As I write this Nawaz Sharief has landed in Islamabad and initial reports suggest that he was not allowed to disembark from the plane and the plane has been surrounded by Commandos. This seems to be in direct contravention to the orders issued by the Supreme Court of Pakistan which said that Nawaz Sharief be allowed to enter the country... What is boiling in the half baked nation where uniform matters more than anything else..... can only be guessed...

This instability does not augur well for the region too... a nation thats the hotbed of Taliban, the Al-Quaida and numerous other terrorist groups in such delicate condition can give jitters to most western nations....

What more does Indian Cricket need :D

2007-05-23T12:33:00.000+05:30

So its official, Whatmore is a strong contender for coaching the Indian Cricket Team. How good he is only time can tell. But given the politics that run rampant in the BCCI, wonder how long he will last !!!

Pastafariasism and the Flying Sphagetti Monster

2007-05-22T10:43:00.000+05:30

A new religion in born, Pastafarianism...a parody religion called "The Church of the Flying Sphagetti Monster" . Founder by Bobby Henderson to protest against the inclusion of Intelligent Design in Education.

Here is what I found on Wikipedia

The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the deity of a parody religion called the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.[1] The religion was founded in 2005 by Oregon State University physics graduate Bobby Henderson to protest against the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to require the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to biological evolution. In an open letter sent to the education board, Henderson professes belief in a supernatural Creator called the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which resembles spaghetti and meatballs.[2] He furthermore calls for the "Pastafarian" (a portmanteau of pasta and Rastafarian) theory of creation to be taught in science classrooms.[3]

The link on Wikipedia is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster

The one on the right is the holy god of Pastafarianism....

Glass and Glass

2007-05-21T15:52:00.000+05:30

A friend of mine is hosting her first show of fused glass this month. Nirmala had to face innumerable jokes from us about her passion for fused glass. Well, she has put it behind and come up with stuff thats exciting.

Here is the invite to the same. The event will be on at Raintree, 41, Sankey Road, High Grounds on May 25th and 26th and at Prathibha Jewellery, Richmond Circle Bangalore 25.

Rahul Gandhi's impact in UP Elections

2007-05-21T14:26:00.000+05:30

The Congress Party has released a report on the impact of Rahul Gandhi's campaign in the UP Elections. His performance ensured that the Congress gained by some 65000 votes ...

Here is the report

UPCC report shows little Rahul impact

New Delhi, May 20: A detailed study on Rahul Gandhi’s campaign through 133 constituencies of Uttar Pradesh prepared by UPCC president Salman Khurshid and his team has arrived at the conclusion that the Gandhi scion helped the party notch up a mere 68,755 votes. A large number of these votes came from former Independents, who were given tickets on the basis of their individual popularity.

The “Impact Analysis of Rahul Gandhi’s Tour” across the Hindi heartland stretching from Saharanpur to Varanasi was prepared for the benefit of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The paper looks at the “positive” impact of Mr Gandhi’s intervention and how much this translated into actual votes. The 2007 voteshare has been compared to the number of votes the Congress got in 2002. But no attempt has been made to put a figure to the party’s losses in these 133 constituencies.

Congress detractors point out that almost 50,000 of the votes being attributed to Mr Gandhi’s intervention were votes won by candidates who were Independents prior to the election. This has been the case in the Puranpur and the Pipraich constituencies. In the former constituency alone, the candidate brought in 41,926 votes.

In several seats, the voteshare of the Congress has fallen dramatically. The study highlights how a key constituency like Aligarh, won by the Samajwadi Party candidate, saw the Congress voteshare halve from 47,801 (41 per cent) in 2002 to 23,066 votes (19 per cent) in 2007. Ghaziabad, on the outskirts of Delhi, also saw the Congress voteshare decline from 64,760 (35.72 per cent) to 48,797 (17 per cent), with the seat being won by the BJP.

The Congress did not succeed in winning any of the four prestigious Lucknow Assembly seats (East, West, Central and Cantt) and was also defeated in Varanasi’s three segments of South, North and East. However, campaigning by the Gandhi scion did ensure a voteshare rise in these cities. Lucknow East saw the Congress bag 13,786 votes, Lucknow West 11,011 votes, Lucknow Central yielded 14,123 votes and Lucknow Cantt saw 19,280 votes, as against 9,728, 8,363, 13,513 and 20,527 votes respectively in 2002. Varanasi also registered an increase of 19,788 (Cantt) and 19,319 (South) votes, as opposed to 18,041 and 11,705 votes respectively in 2002, but Varanasi North saw a decline in the number of votes — from 6,729 to 4,068.

Mr Rahul Gandhi could not reverse the Congress rout in what was once his great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru’s constituency of Phulpur, where the voteshare plummeted from 44,560 (33.71 per cent) to 20,260 (15 per cent) in the last five years. The Congress also lost Allahabad South though the party managed to win Allahabad North thanks to the stalwart fight put up by the local Congress candidate. But both the Allahabad seats saw the voteshare rise to 34 per cent and 20 per cent respectively, as opposed to 5.44 per cent and 14.32 per cent in the last elections.

Glossing over these embarrassing details, the study highlights the point that the Congress gained votes in 80 seats. Of these, in 43 seats the Congress vote increased by over 5,000, while in 18 others the Congress vote went up by over 1,500. All told, the Congress won 13 of the 133 constituencies, whereas in 2002 it had won only three seats.

Sameer Sudharshan

2007-05-15T16:17:00.000+05:30

If you are wondering who is this dude I am writing about, try watching U2, the Kannada music channel at 10 pm everyday. He is the VJ for that show. A very wisecracking, humourous character , he really steals the show. His PJ's are top class and he has an amazing comic sense of timing.

Wont say more, but check out the show everyday at 10 pm on U2. Belive me its worthwhile !!!

GV Iyer, a memory

2006-11-01T17:18:00.000+05:30

Its been a while since GV Iyer, the noted film maker, passed away. To his credits were movies like Shankaracharya, Madhwacharya and other sanskrit movies, which gained him national and international recognition. My minimal interactions with him go back to nearly 20 years i.e when we shifted to our new house on 17th main. I was in my 7th standard then. The interactions were restricted to a broad smile, a namaskara and sometimes a ennappa chennagidhiya :)

Everyday in the morning he used to take a walk to his house through the street that we lived in. It was a walk that took him between the houses of his 2 wives. One wife stayed on 16th main, the other stayed next to the RPC Layout Post Office. Dressed in pristine white, with a flowing beard and a very calm face, one look at him, you would know , he was someone. Another interesting fact was that he walked barefoot. Given that 20 yrs back there was little development, the road was one of Cobble Stones. Even then it was barefoot.

Suddenly he stopped coming on this road, later we came to know he had shifted to his farm somewhere near kengeri. I did not see him after that except for an interview on Television i.e ETV kannada.

May his soul rest in peace.

A new perspective !!!

2006-09-28T21:38:00.000+05:30

I had been going thru a strange phase in my life where I had been carrying a lot of things that should have been let go sometime back. I was sticking to those very things which were dragging me back and was being destructive. I was rather enjoying the pain and felt comfy playing the victim. Mainly due to the the fear of what lies beyond if I let go and partly due to my unbrideled optimism.

It was an unusual spectacle that brought me back to my senses . The route which I used to take to office has a couple of railway over bridges. On one of them, everyday as soon as a train passed over , the entire traffic would come to a stand still. All because of the open loo's the bogies had. Since the Railway station itself was close, there wouldnt be a rain of shit, but a drip irrigation of piss. All these was sometime back i.e a year or so back.

Later the Railway Authorities covered the underbelly of the bridge so that the passing motorists dint get the shower. I had switched to a different route and I forgot all about the over bridge.

Sometime back I went through the same old route. As I approached the over bridge, I noticed that as soon as Train passed over the bridge, people still waited for the train to pass over. You could see the entire underbelly of the bridge covered. But still people waited for the train to passover. There was nothing to fear for, but still everyone held on to their belief that they had to wait for the train to pass.

Suddenly I realised I was no different from any of those waiting for the train to pass. I was holding onto things which no longer held good for me. There were opportunities lying beyond but I was more focussed on things which were holding me back.

I made a decision, I decided to let go of these things which were probably causing me more harm than good. I felt relieved, i felt light. I somehow guided my vehicle to the fore of the traffic snarl. While others waited for the train to pass, I dint, I crossed the bridge. The train was still thundering overhead. Nothing dripped from above. I found the road ahead, empty, an opportunity to speed up. I speeded up, crossed the traffic lights. Others saw me and dared to cross over. Nothing happened to them tooo...

As soon as I crossed the traffic lights, it turned red. The others had to wait for the green to comeon. It was better late than never. I felt good, and the road ahead looked smooth.

Lalu comes to IIM-A with new image

2006-09-18T12:52:00.000+05:30

An article on Laloo Yadv and his turnaround of the railways. This was on Rediff.com
The link

Union Railway Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav wants to do something that even Amitabh Bachchan cannot do: an image makeover.

Lalu wants to cleverly manipulate the perception of him outside his home turf of Bihar.

The master tactician of Indian politics is embarking on a difficult assignment, of changing his brand-image, in the middle of his political career, but more interesting to note is that, so far, he has been somewhat successful.

No, this is no Lalu Joke, the railway minister is dead serious. He wants the media and the political class to leave behind the administrative mess he created within Bihar during his 15 years of rule. Lalu's confidants are requesting the media to stop equating him with a buffoon and take a fresh look at the latest statistics from the railway ministry under his leadership.

His PR advisors want the media to acknowledge him as Lalu Yadav, Master of Business Administration.

The new venture, starring Lalu Yadav, has been scripted by himself and produced by his political ambition.

After losing power in Bihar and humiliated and humbled, Lalu doesn't want to remain outside the public domain.

To keep getting attention from the rest of India, Lalu is participating in an institution where even a few months ago his presence would have been considered most unlikely: the premier Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Today, at 2 pm, in a class-room in IIM-A, 16 students of the post-graduate programme in management for executives (PGPX) will present a PowerPoint debating Lalu Yadav's various management decisions in the railway ministry.

Lalu is 'material for case study' because Indian Railways, which defaulted in paying dividends worth Rs 1823 crore in 2001, is today profitable with its treasury boasting of a Rs 12,140 crore turnover.

IIM-A students have examined the issue of "turnaround" of a monstrously big organization like Indian Railways under Lalu's leadership on the basis of a 120-page long document prepared by IIM' professor G Raghuram, chairman of PGPX.

Professor Raghuram told Rediff.com, "Lalu Yadav has energized Indian Railways. His consistency of direction has played a role, yet at the same time he is staying away from interfering at the operational level of decision-making."

In Lalu's presence, Professor Raghuram and his students will debate if the turning around of a loss-making Indian Railways into an impressive success story is for real or hype.

Professor Raghuram, who has studied the functioning of Indian Railways thoroughly, believes, "The railways' turnaround is not hype because the net revenues have increased from Rs 5000 crore to Rs 8000 crore.

"By increasing 'axle-loading' of wagons and combining it with a market-oriented approach, Lalu has contributed in the success of Indian Railways."

According to a member of the core group in the top railway management, "Lalu Yadav has so far believed that people don't care for development as much as they do for emotions. His voters told us, Swarg nahin swar diya (Lalu gave them voice to them if not heaven). But now Lalu thinks it's time for him to change and take up developmental politics."

The railway top brass are talking about how Lalu is shaping his leadership with a human touch. Recently, Lalu was presiding over the farewell function of a retiring senior railway employee, and found the officer a little depressed. He asked him why, and the employee said since he married a little late in life his financial responsibilities towards his family are not yet over and after his retirement there would be no income.

Lalu on the spot asked the chief of Railway Board J P Batra to give a job to the retiring employee's elder son. Needless to say, the event turned emotional and Lalu gained.

His senior officers claim that Lalu has for the first time changed the approach and mechanism of supervision of the regions by the head office.

Indian Railways is divided into 16 zones, each headed by a general manager. The 16 zonal headquarters have 67 divisions headed by a Division Regional Manager. In addition, it has nine production units.

Previously, railway ministers were close to the Board which is excessively powerful body. But Lalu is now making the head office closer to GMs and DRMs, thereby improving the supervision of GMs' performance, making them more responsible and accountable.

Another important factor is that Lalu Yadav's team is reclassifying the management of goods transport.

According to an IIM study, the railways have increased the freight volume but now the maximization of the use of wagons is making a huge difference to the bottom-line.

It may be difficult to believe, but Lalu as railway minister has changed wagon management entirely by reducing corruption with the help of new benchmarks in administration.

Since the last many years the goods wagons would carry a load of around 20 tonnes per pair of wheels. A wagon with, say, three pairs of wheels would thus be carrying 60 tonnes.

This gave scope to a multi-million rupee scam. Per wagon an excess of around 15 tonnes of unaccounted goods was being transported, and the money went to the dubious nexus of railway managers and private contractors. But Lalu took a decision to increase 'axle loading' (the permitted limit of weight carried by each wagon), which left no scope for excess goods.

In typical style, Lalu has popularized the delightful slogan to carry forward his message.

He says, "You have to milk the cow, otherwise she will become sick.

The railway wagons are giving profit but that's not enough, you have to maximize the use of wagons."

Lalu says railway wagons are like "a cow ready be milked."

Not only has he increased the permissible weight limit to 22.5 tonnes and bringing in more money, he has also forced more rounds of wagons every month. Previously unloading of goods at destinations was done only during office hours but now unloading is done round the clock. Previously each wagon used to travel four to five trips per month but now wagons make eight to 10 trips.

Also, Lalu has put more resources in geographical areas where more traffic and revenues are being generated.

However, Lalu cannot shed his political colours entirely.

He has ensured that his constituency Chapra in Bihar gets a big pie of the railways' development projects. A railway wheel factory and loco manufacturing projects are planned for Bihar.

Thus Lalu's road-show will not end at IIM-A. He has also been invited to lecture at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie. A French think-tank wants to do 'research' on him, and Jeffrey R Immelt of GE and the Suzuki chief are seeking an audience with him.

Harvard University, reportedly, is planning a seminar in Delhi to hear Lalu's views on management and the economy.

And, his advisors tell the media that with the Congress not improving its grass-root infrastructure and the Bharatiya Janata Party facing an acute leadership crisis, who knows what would be the outcome of the next general election!

Who can rule out that Lalu Yadav, the great grass-root politician, has a lot of potential in the uncertain Indian political environment created by the weaknesses of the two major political parties?

Steve Irwin is dead

2006-09-04T13:04:00.000+05:30

He was killed in a freak accident in Cairns, police sources said today.

It is understood he was killed by a stingray barb that went through his chest and reportedly into his heart .

He was swimming off the Low Isles at Port Douglas filming an underwater documentary when the tragedy occured.

The Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) was called about 11am (AEST) and an emergency services helicopter was flown to the crew's boat on Batt Reef, off the coast near Cairns, with a doctor and emergency services paramedic on board.

Irwin had a puncture wound to the left side of his chest and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Irwin's body is being flown to Cairns.

Tasmania Police this afternoon confirmed his wife Terri was travelling in the state at the time of the tragedy.

A spokeswoman said police had made contact with Mrs Irwin and "passed on a message relating to the death of her husband".

The Irwins have two children - a daughter, Bindi Sue Irwin, eight, and a three-year-old son, Robert (Bob) Clarence Irwin.

Steve Irwin - known worldwide as the Crocodile Hunter - was famous for his enthusiasm for wildlife and his catchcry "Crikey!".

In an sad twist, it has been reported that his new documentary was aimed at demystifying the stingray.

Irwin's Crocodile Hunter program was first broadcast in 1992 and has been shown around the world on cable network Discovery.

He has also starred in movies and has developed the Australia Zoo wildlife park, north of Brisbane, which was started by his parents Bob and Lyn Irwin.

Tributes have already started pouring in for the larger-than-life character.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who used a photograph of his family at Australia Zoo for his official Christmas card last year, hailed Mr Irwin for his work in promoting Australia.

Irwin was heavily involved in last year's "G'Day LA" campaign.

"The minister knew him, was fond of him and was very, very appreciative of all the work he'd done to promote Australia overseas," a spokesman said.

A Tourism Queensland spokeswoman said the death was shocking and paid tribute to Irwin's "enormous contribution" to his adopted state.

"I don't think we could even estimate how much he brought us through his personality and his profile and his enthusiasm about Queensland," she said.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20349888-2,00.html

Only the gods can save India

2006-09-01T18:06:00.000+05:30

This article dwells on the kind of political leaders our Student communities are producing offlate. Post-muder of the Professor in Ujjain, this article dwells on the future of politics in India if these kind of people are allowed to rule India. This article appeared on rediff.com

http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/sep/01flip.htm

Prakash Karat damns the Election Commission for 'bias'. Every Congressman is secretly convinced that he can do a better job as prime minister than poor Manmohan Singh -- if only Sonia Gandhi listens.

The BJP condemns the Speaker for his prejudiced views, and Somnath Chatterjee thunders back that he will resign if he is not respected. Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha descends into chaos as MPs from the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Janata Dal (United) engage each other physically.

Watching all this from afar I raise my eyes to the heavens, praying that our current crop of leaders lives long. Ask me why, and I can only invite you to consider the alternative...

Several of the top guns in politics arose from student unions. The list of luminaries includes Arun Jaitley of the BJP, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Sharad Yadav, and Marxists such as Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury. It is a fair assumption that some of tomorrow's leaders shall arise from the student unions of today. Can you, honestly, contemplate this future without shuddering?

Professor Nishi Pandey of Lucknow University complained of being harassed by student leader Ram Singh Rana last year after she tried to stop him from entering the women's hostel. This year, the Samajwadi Party has made Rana its candidate for president of the Lucknow University Students Union.

In Delhi, Jamia Milia Islamia University shut down in July after students went on a rampage against the vice-chancellor and the proctor. They were supported by the National Students' Union of India president Nadeem Javed, who promised to take up their case with Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh. (The fact that the vice-chancellor in question is the renowned historian Mushirul Hasan did not get him any support from his leftist friends.)

But all this pales into insignificance beside the tragedy in Ujjain, where Professor Harcharan Singh Sabharwal died of injuries after he was assaulted, allegedly by activists associated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. This has been denied both by the ABVP and by the BJP; the spokespersons of both pointed out that the television footage does not show any ABVP member hitting Professor Sabharwal.

You know what? I don't care, the footage that I did see was damning enough!

I saw Vimal Tomar, organising secretary of the ABVP in Madhya Pradesh jabbing away at Professor M L Nath of Madhav College in Ujjain. I saw him mouth offensive words at the assembled faculty, abuse that the television channels prudently bleeped out. I heard him say something to the effect, "You have called us goondas, now we shall teach you a lesson!" We also had the 'privilege' of watching Shashiranjan Akela, president of the Madhya Pradesh unit of the ABVP, argue vehemently with his teachers.

Even if you can lay aside the assault on Professor Sabharwal -- and I for one find it absolutely unpardonable -- how can you explain away the fundamental lack of decency exhibited by the likes of Vimal Tomar? There may not be any evidence of ABVP members assaulting Professor Sabharwal, there is plenty of proof of their vulgarity against the other teachers. For this alone, they should be drummed out of the university, and kicked out of all political activity as well.

Lawyers will argue endlessly whether Professor Sabharwal's death was 'murder' or 'manslaughter'. Investigators certainly have their work cut out to see whether there was any NSUI involvement given that the Congress-backed body was just as unhappy with Professor Sabharwal as the ABVP itself. But if there is a moral dimension to politics, then Vimal Tomar and Shashiranjan Akela are guilty of creating an atmosphere where violence against teachers could flourish.

Let me quote from the RSS web site: 'Devotional worship of the Guru is one of the most touching and elevating features of the Hindu cultural tradition. The relationship of Guru-shishya is one unique symbol of our Hindu Dharma.'

The RSS takes this so seriously that one of its great annual events is Guru Purnima, when every member is expected to make some token offering to the Guru. I can remember seeing the likes of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani perform Guru Dakshina even when they were in high office.

Why, given this tradition, weren't Vimal Tomar and Shashiranjan Akela drummed out of the ABVP the moment they were seen insulting their teachers at the gates of Madhav College? Does Guru Purnima hold any meaning any longer, or is it empty ritual?

The ABVP was formed when M S Golwalkar was the Sarsanghachalak. The 'M' in his name stood for 'Madhavrao', and he himself was affectionately known as 'Guruji'. What irony if the centenary year of his birth is marked by insulting Gurus in the precincts of an institution named 'Madhav' College!

Will anybody emerge with clean hands from the Ujjain tragedy? When last heard, over 20 NSUI members had been arrested in Ujjain -- on the basis of a list of offenders given to the police by the principal of Madhav College. Sanjeev Jain, of the Nationalist Congress Party's Disha Kisaan Sangathan, also surrendered to the police in the same case. With associates of the BJP, the Congress, and Sharad Pawar's NCP named, fears of political interference are bound to grow.

And these are the people from whose ranks India's future leaders may arise. Ponder over that.

I read that GMP Dwivedi, who is heading the Criminal Investigation Department team, started the probe after praying at the Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain. I understand exactly how he feels. When politics vitiates the atmosphere in temples of learning so much that students insult their teachers, well, only the gods can save India.

The inspiring rags-to-riches tale of Sarathbabu

2006-08-31T17:22:00.000+05:30

This is truly an inspiring story, really worth a read. This was published on rediff.com.

The inspiring rags-to-riches tale of Sarathbabu
Shobha Warrier

August 31, 2006

When 27-year old Sarathbabu graduated from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, he created quite a stir by refusing a job that offered him a huge salary. He preferred to start his own enterprise -- Foodking Catering Service -- in Ahmedabad.

He was inspired by his mother who once sold idlis on the pavements of Chennai, to educate him and his siblings. It was a dream come true, when Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy lit the traditional lamp and inaugurated Sarathbabu's enterprise.

Sarathbabu was in Chennai, his hometown, a few days ago, to explore the possibility of starting a Foodking unit in the city and also to distribute the Ullas Trust Scholarships instituted by the IT firm Polaris to 2,000 poor students in corporation schools.

In this interview with rediff.com, Sarathbabu describes his rise from a Chennai slum to his journey to the nation's premier management institute to becoming a successful entrepreneur. This is his story, in his own words.

Childhood in a slum

I was born and brought up in a slum in Madipakkam in Chennai. I have two elder sisters and two younger brothers and my mother was the sole breadwinner of the family. It was really tough for her to bring up five kids on her meagre salary.

As she had studied till the tenth standard, she got a job under the mid-day meal scheme of the Tamil Nadu government in a school at a salary of Rs 30 a month. She made just one rupee a day for six people.

So, she sold idlis in the mornings. She would then work for the mid-day meal at the school during daytime. In the evenings, she taught at the adult education programme of the Indian government.

She, thus, did three different jobs to bring us up and educate us. Although she didn't say explicitly that we should study well, we knew she was struggling hard to send us to school. I was determined that her hard work should not go in vain.

I was a topper throughout my school days. In the mornings, we went out to sell idlis because people in slums did not come out of their homes to buy idlis. For kids living in a slum, idlis for breakfast is something very special.

My mother was not aware of institutions like the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, or the Indian Institutes of Technology. She only wanted to educate us so that we got a good job. I didn't know what I wanted to do at that time because in my friend-circle, nobody talked about higher education or preparing for the IIT-JEE.

When you constantly worry about the next square meal, you do not dream of becoming a doctor or an engineer. The only thing that was on my mind was to get a good job because my mother was struggling a lot.

I got very good marks in the 10th standard exam. It was the most critical moment of my life. Till the 10th, there was no special fee but for the 11th and the 12th, the fees were Rs 2,000-3,000.

I did book-binding work during the summer vacation and accumulated money for my school fees. When I got plenty of work, I employed 20 other children and all of us did the work together. That was my first real job as an entrepreneur. Once I saw the opportunity, I continued with the work.

Life at BITS, Pilani

Sarathbabau. Photograph: Sreeram SelvarajA classmate of mine told me about BITS, Pilani. He was confident that I would get admission, as I was the topper. He also told me that on completion (of studies at Pilani), I will definitely get a job.

When I got the admission, I had mixed feelings. On one hand I was excited that for the first time I was going out of Chennai, but there was also a sense of uncertainty.

The fees alone were around Rs 28,000, and I had to get around Rs 42,000. It was huge, huge money for us. And there was no one to help us. Just my mother and sisters. One of my sisters -- they were all married by then -- pawned her jewellery and that's how I paid for the first semester.

My mother then found out about an Indian government scholarship scheme. She sent me the application forms, I applied for the scholarship, and I was successful. So, after the first semester, it was the scholarship that helped me through.

It also helped me to pay my debt (to the sister who had pawned her jewellery). I then borrowed money from my other sister and repaid her when the next scholarship came.

The scholarship, however, covered only the tuition fees. What about the hostel fees and food? Even small things like a washing soap or a toothbrush or a tube of toothpaste was a burden. So, I borrowed more at high rates of interest. The debt grew to a substantial amount by the time I reached the fourth year.

First year at BITS, Pilani

To put it mildly, I was absolutely shocked. Till then, I had moved only with students from poor families. At Pilani, all the students were from the upper class or upper middle class families. Their lifestyle was totally different from mine. The topics they discussed were alien to me. They would talk about the good times they had in school.

On the other hand, my school years were a big struggle. There was this communication problem also as I was not conversant in English then.

I just kept quiet and observed them. I concentrated only on my studies because back home so many people had sacrificed for me. And, it took a really long time -- till the end of the first year -- to make friends.

The second year

I became a little more confident and started opening up. I had worked really hard for the engineering exhibition during the first year. I did a lot of labour-intensive work like welding and cutting, though my subject was chemical engineering. My seniors appreciated me.

In my second year also, I worked really hard for the engineering exhibition. This time, my juniors appreciated me, and they became my close friends, so close that they would be at my beck and call.

In the third year, when there was an election for the post of the co-ordinator for the exhibition, my juniors wanted me to contest. Thanks to their efforts I was unanimously elected. That was my first experience of being in the limelight. It was also quite an experience to handle around 100 students.

Seeing my work, slowly my batch mates also came to the fold. All of them said I lead the team very well.

They also told me that I could be a good manager and asked me to do MBA. That was the first time I heard about something called MBA. I asked them about the best institution in India. They said, the Indian Institutes of Management. Then, I decided if I was going to study MBA, it should be at one of the IIMs, and nowhere else.

Inspiration to be an entrepreneur

It was while preparing for the Common Admission Test that I read in the papers that 30 per cent of India's population does not get two meals a day. I know how it feels to be hungry. What should be done to help them, I wondered.

I also read about Infosys and Narayana Murthy, Reliance and Ambani. Reliance employed 20,000-25,000 people at that time, and Infosys, around 15,000. When a single entrepreneur like Ambani employed 25,000 people, he was supporting the family, of four or five, of each employee. So he was taking care of 100,000 people indirectly. I felt I, too, should become an entrepreneur.

But, my mother was waiting for her engineer son to get a job, pay all the debts, build a pucca house and take care of her. And here I was dreaming about starting my own enterprise. I decided to go for a campus interview, and got a job with Polaris. I also sat for CAT but I failed to clear it in my first attempt.

I worked for 30 months at Polaris. By then, I could pay off all the debts but I hadn't built a proper house for my mother. But I decided to pursue my dream. When I took CAT for the third time, I cleared it and got calls from all the six IIMs. I got admission at IIM, Ahmedabad.

Life at IIM, Ahmedabad

My college helped me get a scholarship for the two years that I was at IIM. Unlike in BITS, I was more confident and life at IIM was fantastic. I took up a lot of responsibilities in the college. I was in the mess committee in the first year and in the second year; I was elected the mess secretary.

Becoming an entrepreneur

By the end of the second year, there were many lucrative job offers coming our way, but in my mind I was determined to start something on my own. But back home, I didn't have a house. It was a difficult decision to say 'no' to offers that gave you Rs 800,000 a year. But I was clear in my mind even while I knew the hard realities back home.

Yes, my mother had been an entrepreneur, and subconsciously, she must have inspired me. My inspirations were also (Dhirubhai) Ambani and Narayana Murthy. I knew I was not aiming at something unachievable. I got the courage from them to start my own enterprise.

Nobody at my institute discouraged me. In fact, at least 30-40 students at the IIM wanted to be entrepreneurs. And we used to discuss about ideas all the time. My last option was to take up a job.

Foodking Catering Services Pvt Ltd

My mother is my first inspiration to start a food business. Remember I started my life selling idlis in my slum. Then of course, my experience as the mess secretary at IIM-A was the second inspiration. I must have handled at least a thousand complaints and a thousand suggestions at that time. Every time I solved a problem, they thanked me.

I also felt there is a good opportunity in the food business. If you notice, a lot of people who work in the food business come from the weaker sections of the society.

My friends helped me with registering the company with a capital of Rs 100,000. Because of the IIM brand and also because of the media attention, I could take a loan from the bank without any problem.

I set up an office and employed three persons. The first order was from a software company in Ahmedabad. They wanted us to supply tea, coffee and snacks. We transported the items in an auto.

When I got the order from IIM, Ahmedabad, I took a loan of Rs 11 lakhs (Rs 1.1 million) and started a kitchen. So, my initial capital was Rs 11.75 lakhs (Rs 1.17 million).

Three months have passed, and now we have forty employees and four clients -- IIM Ahmedabad, Darpana Academy, Gujarat Energy Research Management Institute and System Plus.

In the first month of our operation, we earned around Rs 35,000. Now, the turnover is around Rs 250,000. The Chennai operations will start in another three months' time.

Ambition

I want to employ as many people as I can, and improve their quality of life. In the first year, I want to employ around 200-500 people. In the next five years, I hope to increase it by 15,000. I am sure it is possible.

I want to cover all the major cities in India, and later, I want to go around the world too.

I have seen people from all walks of life -- from the slums to the elite in the country. That is why luxuries like a car or a bungalow do not matter to me. Even money doesn't matter to me. I feel bad if I have to have food in a five star hotel. I feel guilty.

Personally, I have no ambition but I want to give a house and a car to my mother.

Appreciation

I did not expect this kind of exposure by the media for my venture or appreciation from people like my director at the IIM or Narayana Murthy. I was just doing what I wanted to do. But the exposure really helped me get orders, finance, everything.

The best compliments I received were from Narayana Murthy and my director at IIM, Ahmedabad. When I told him (IIM-A director) about my decision to start a company, he hugged me and wished me luck. They have seen life, they have seen thousands and thousands of students and if they say it is a good decision, I am sure it is a good decision.

Reservation

Reservation should be a mix of all criteria. If you take a caste that comes under reservation, 80 per cent of the people will be poor and 20 per cent rich, the creamy layer. For the general category, it will be the other way around.

I feel equal weightage should be given for the economic background. A study has to be done on what is the purpose of reservation and what it has done to the needy. It should be more effective and efficient. In my case, I would not have demanded for reservation. I accepted it because the society felt I belonged to the deprived class and needed a helping hand.

Today, the opportunities are grabbed by a few. They should be ashamed of their ability if they avail reservation even after becoming an IAS officer or something like that. They are putting a burden on the society and denying a chance to the really needy.

I feel reservation is enough for one generation. For example, if the child's father is educated, he will be able to guide the child properly.

Take my case, I didn't have any system that would make me aware of the IITs and the IIMs. But I will be able to guide my children properly because I am well educated. I got the benefits of reservation but I will never avail of it for my children. I cannot even think of demanding reservation for the next generation.